WEST VIRGINIA
The Intelligencer
April 15, 2012
From Staff, AP Dispatches
WHEELING – J. Davitt McAteer has been accused by a NASA fraud investigator of conspiring with Wheeling Jesuit University 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 against McAteer and his alma mater and current employer, Wheeling Jesuit University.
Court records on file with the U.S. District Court in Wheeling show investigators believe 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 at NASA’s Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Md., said those expenses range from 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 McAteer’s Shepherdstown private law office.
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