As someone who assists in the stewardship of public resources by keeping an eye on how government entities function, there is a certain sense of satisfaction in seeing two former administrators at UW-Oshkosh criminally charged with misconduct in officer for illegally binding taxpayers to debts accrued by a private entity and making secret payments to cover up that activity. But there is something in the timing of the criminal charges against former Chancellor Richard Wells and former Vice Chancellor Tom Sonnleitner that doesn’t quite pass the smell test.
First, there is no doubt that Wells, Sonnleitner and Foundation personnel conspired to defraud the UW System. If administrators were allowed to give banks assurances that the schools would repay debts accrued by their foundations, Wells and Sonnleitner would have told UW System officials they were doing that for several projects funded by the foundation around town. And if the University was allowed to fund the Foundation, they would have made those payments clear in accounting records–instead of using bookkeeping tricks hide the transfers.
But the legal procedure used to right this wrong has been backwards from the start. It has made no sense to file a civil lawsuit against the administrators–especially since they would never be able to repay the 11-million dollars that was improperly transferred to the Foundation. And by going the civil suit route, it appeared the State was initially saying that there was no grounds for criminal charges. I’m sure the UW System was also more than happy to avoid criminal charges, as it just makes for more bad publicity–especially when they for years have been saying there’s “no money to put into classrooms”–yet their leaders in Oshkosh come up with 11-MILLION to funnel into questionable building projects.
But then the UWO Foundation decided to go bankrupt–and is trying to stick the UW System–but more correctly, taxpayers–with the bill for their irresponsible borrowing. And after a federal judge tossed out the State’s argument that Wells and Sonnleitner were acting outside of their authority in creating the financial mess–it appeared that we the taxpayers are going to get stuck with the bill. And that is why I believe the Department of Justice has decided to file criminal charges against the two.
If the issue of who must repay the bad loans goes to a jury trial, the defense for the Foundation can use plenty of legal arguments to sway a jury that Wells and Sonnleitner–while not acting in the best of faith–weren’t doing anything “illegal” in guaranteeing loans and secretly helping to make payments. But criminal convictions against the two could carry a lot of weight in the minds of those who might be asked to determine who really is to blame for this mess–and who should be made to foot the bill.
Undoubtedly, the charges against the former administrators will be reduced to misdemeanors and nobody will be spending any time behind bars. But it remains to be seen if real justice–the Foundation being made to repay its own debts–and not the taxpayers of Wisconsin who had nothing to do with the swindle that created this fiasco–will come to pass.
