George Castro claims he doesn’t know how $4.5 million of Columbia University’s money wound up in his bank account, but an investigation is showing that he may have funneled the funds there with a simple little accounting tweak.
While it’s unclear if Castro was at any point employed by Columbia University, he was apparently “familiar with the university’s accounts payable system” and at some point took the time to just plain modify an existing university account to add his own as a payee:
[His] account received over $3.4 million in funds from Columbia University accounts in October and $1 million in November. The money was then withdrawn in cash from the new account.
Castro is currently being held on $2 million bail and maintains that the “the funds simply appeared in his account.” I’m not sure if he’s claiming that the shiny new $80,000 Audi in his driveway and the $200,000 he had stuffed into a bag appeared mysteriously as well. [NY Post via Business Insider]
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