Following a financial aid scandal, two former UW-Oshkosh administrators will face criminal charges, The Oshkosh Northwestern announced Thursday.
Chancellor Richard Wells and Vice Chancellor Tom Sonnleitner are charged with five counts of misconduct at the result of abusing their authority as parties to a crime. For each charge, the maximum penalty in three-and-a-half years.
The case began last year after the UW System filed a lawsuit against the administrators for siphoning taxpayers money into five building projects, amounting to over an alleged $600,000.
Last year, the Board of Regents reached out to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, encouraging them to seek civil and criminal charges against Sonnleitner and Wells.
The pair also purportedly wrote a handful of “comfort letters” to various banks, ensuring them the university would be able to help out if they were unable to make bond payments. However, Sonnleitner and Wells deny that those were legally binding.
Last year, the Board of Regents stepped away from a deal potentially using taxpayer dollars that would aid in payment of those debts. The UW-Oshkosh Foundation filed for bankruptcy last August.
This past June, the System Audit Committee Chair Michael Grebe announced that no state dollars would contribute to paying off real estate debts of UW-Oshkosh’s Foundation. He said the use of state funds to aid the foundation in paying off its debts “would be inappropriate.”
“University officials will continue to work with the Foundation’s leadership as it attempts to work through the financial realities the Foundation faces,” Grebe said in a press release. “A core mission of the foundation is providing financial assistance to UW-Oshkosh students, and we have a particular sensitivity to that ongoing role.”
Wells is set to make his first court appearance in early June, according to his attorney, Ray Dall’Osto.
Maggie Chandler contributed to this report.
