UWM husband-wife profs fired for defrauding grad students, records say

A Mequon couple employed as engineering professors on the College of Wisconsin-Milwaukee engaged in a years-long scheme to defraud graduate college students by means of faux grants and presents, in accordance with newly launched college data.

The husband, Yue Liu, often known as Troy Liu, agreed to plead responsible to federal crimes in February and awaits sentencing. 

UWM data present for the primary time that Liu’s spouse, Jie Yu, additionally allegedly was concerned within the scheme. Each she and Liu have been fired by the UW Board of Regents in December, a uncommon punishment that has occurred simply seven different occasions throughout the UW System since 2010, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel overview of data discovered.

“Professor Yu, in live performance together with her husband, exploited college students, misused and misappropriated College sources, and misled colleagues,” Brett Peters, dean of UWM’s Faculty of Engineering and Utilized Science, wrote in a summer season 2021 report recommending her dismissal.

Peter Zeidenberg, a white-collar prison protection lawyer at ArentFox Schiff who’s representing the couple, mentioned the federal authorities hasn’t charged Yu. He additionally referred to as the case “extremely uncommon” as a result of he mentioned not one of the college students thought of themselves to have been victims of fraud. They all graduated UWM with levels and so they all went on to acquire jobs of their discipline. 

The case prompted UWM to make many modifications, together with elevated communication to its roughly 4,400 graduate college students and extra coaching to assist staff acknowledge and flag potential fraud. It additionally underscored the monetary vulnerability of graduate college students enrolled at UWM, the place solely about 22% obtain assistantships that cowl the price of their tuition. For comparability, at UW-Madison, 71% of doctoral college students and 27% of grasp’s college students maintain assistantships that qualify them for tuition remission. 

UWM’s 2021 investigation into Yu, launched to the Journal Sentinel beneath the state’s public data regulation, gives new perception on the case. The college was alerted to potential issues when staff observed “suspicious exercise” associated to considered one of Liu’s analysis grants. Yu was a co-leader of her husband’s undertaking.

From at the very least 2014 by means of 2018, UWM data point out, Liu despatched letters to a number of college students who had utilized for admission to the civil and environmental engineering program. He used UWM letterhead and the fictional title “Ian Wyatt” within the letters, which promised potential college students that tuition can be coated and paid work with him supplied in the event that they despatched funds of greater than $31,000 per yr to the “Wisconsin Worldwide Training Basis.” 

The inspiration’s workplace deal with matched the couple’s house deal with in Mequon, the report mentioned. 

Liu and Yu, who additionally labored within the civil and environmental engineering division, then arrange faux presents and grants as a mechanism to pay the scholars’ tuition and their work stipends, in accordance with the report. Investigators linked Liu to the fictional entities as a result of his UWM electronic mail deal with was listed because the restoration electronic mail deal with for a restricted legal responsibility firm funding one of many faux presents.

Yu both despatched or was copied on all messages associated to one of many faux presents, “additional demonstrating her participation and complicity in relation to those schemes,” the report mentioned. She additionally, when making use of to be promoted additional alongside on the tenure monitor in 2020, cited two of the fabricated grants on her resume, it mentioned. 

Liu began at UWM in 2009. Yu joined the college in 2015. 

All informed, the professors paid about $500,000 to UWM beneath the guise of grants and presents from faux firms, in accordance with the report. UWM officers decided Liu and Yu obtained at the very least $402,000 from college students, although investigators estimated the couple’s earnings may exceed $1 million if every of the 27 college students who studied beneath them from 2010 by means of 2021 paid $31,000 per yr for 2 years of graduate work.

Zeidenberg mentioned college students acquired deal that, in the long run, saved them extra money than if that they had paid full out-of-state tuition price. He additionally mentioned Liu shared particulars of the monetary association with college students by textual content message earlier than they paid the inspiration.

The scholars have described Liu as an impressive professor and mentor, Zeidenberg mentioned, and they’re all requesting the courtroom deal with him with most leniency for sentencing.

The college committee that investigated Yu didn’t interview the affected college students. It  additionally didn’t interview Yu as a result of she declined it is request.

UWM took the bizarre step of quickly suspending Yu final summer season earlier than she was terminated. The suspension prevented her from contacting college students, performing analysis, accessing campus amenities and attending college conferences. However the report signifies Yu could have violated these phrases when she contacted a UWM professor who shares a analysis grant together with her. 

UWM “is dedicated to the welfare and well-being of our college students, together with our worldwide college students, who assist make UWM a vibrant and numerous campus,” college spokesperson Michelle Johnson mentioned. 

UWM officers declined to touch upon Zeidenberg’s statements, citing the continued prison case, however mentioned there have been “important errors.”

Amongst modifications UWM made within the wake of the case embrace up to date grievance procedures for graduate college students and a handbook that can cowl their rights and obligations, she mentioned. A piece group is crafting suggestions on how college ought to mentor graduate college students. 

Graduate college workers revised a number of internet pages and its provide letter template so as to add and make clear data on graduate assistant positions, tuition remission, pay buildings and worldwide pupil procedures. Johnson additionally mentioned staff obtained fraud-detection coaching and a brand new web site gives clear reporting directions.

Contact Kelly Meyerhofer at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com. Observe her on Twitter at @KellyMeyerhofer.