You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
A former Arizona State University technology employee faces 14 felony counts after an internal audit found he allegedly misspent thousands in university funds over four years.
The office of Arizona’s auditor general released its report Monday, alleging that Carlos Urrea, a former manager of information technology at Arizona State, spent more than $124,000 on a university credit card. The 810 purchases, made from June 2017 to December 2021, included two Christmas trees, 12 gaming consoles, a washer and dryer, a treadmill, and 11 Costco gift cards totaling $1,000 each.
According to the report, Urrea admitted to using the university funds to “support his family” but admitted it was “very dumb.”
The auditor’s report found Urrea was able to sidestep ASU’s purchase card procedure to give “immediate support” to senior university leaders. He allegedly submitted 347 forged receipts and 358 false business purposes, covering up 729 of his personal purchases to appear they were for valid university purposes. Urrea told the auditor general he used software to edit the digital receipts. For example, he swapped out a photo of a sofa from Costco and replaced it with a photo and description of technology equipment.
Arizona State said that since this investigation, the university has updated its policy to require use of the procurement process whenever possible and, when not possible, to have the business team make the purchase rather than the employee.
