WEST VIRGINIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Saturday, April 14, 2012
By VICKI SMITH , The Associated Press
MORGANTOWN, W.Va.–One of the world’s foremost experts on mine safety–from gold mines in Chile to the coal mines of southern West Virginia–stands accused by a NASA fraud investigator of conspiring with the Catholic college where he now works to use millions of federal grant dollars for personal gain and the school’s benefit.
The allegations are contained in an affidavit that an agent in the NASA Office of Inspector General used to obtain search warrants in an active criminal investigation of former U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration director J. Davitt McAteer, and his alma mater and current employer, Wheeling Jesuit University.
Court records show investigators believe Mr. McAteer and the school fraudulently billed expenses to federal grant programs or cooperative agreements from 2005 through 2011.
The sworn affidavit by an agent who works out of the Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Md., said those expenses range from Mr. McAteer’s salary–which surged from $130,300 in 2006 to $230,659 by 2008–to cellphones, computers, technical support and salaries for other staff, including a secretary in Mr. McAteer’s Shepherdstown private law office.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.