Two more arrests have been made in the UF Housing and Resident Education scandal now totaling more than $470,000 in alleged credit card fraud.
Azfar Mian, UF’s former senior housing director, and Stina Schoneck, the former housing finance director, were arrested Wednesday night after UF auditors accused the pair of embezzling nearly half a million dollars using a fraudulent Campus USA Credit Union account, according to a University Police sworn complaint.
Mian, 41, was originally arrested Sept. 18 and subsequently fired after he was accused by UF auditors of spending more than $180,000 in university funds, mostly through his UF-issued credit card, since January 2016, according to Alligator archives.
Five other Housing officials, including Schoneck, 38, who worked under Mian’s supervision were placed on leave and suspected to be involved.
UF’s Office of Internal Audit, who’d been investigating Mian since April, found in September that he fraudulently furnished his home, paid his electric bill and bought miscellaneous goods, like technology and meals, with UF funds.
On Monday, auditors met with police and described how Mian and Schoneck both opened a Credit Union account in February 2016 titled “UF IRHA,” for Inter-Residence Hall Association, according to the complaint. The pair were the only signatories on the account.
Mian and Schoneck would deposit legitimate UF Housing checks and transfer funds from Housing student organizations into their account. Either one, or both, would physically go to the location and make cash withdrawals, usually thousands of dollars at a time, according to the complaint.
In March, Mian made 19 cash withdrawals from the account; totaling $61,000. According to the complaint, the pair made cash withdrawals totaling $470,000 since the account was created in February 2016.
Schoneck was fired Thursday and three other Housing officials — Jennifer Andrews, Mian’s executive assistant; Dirk Smith, a warehouse and stores specialist; and Curtis Harris, a Housing employee — were terminated in October, UF spokesperson Janine Sikes wrote in an email.
One of the formerly suspected employees Kevin Morgan, a Housing Information and Technology worker, was cleared and returned to work Sept. 28, according to archives.
Sikes said the university is taken back by recent events.
“I think it’s numbing,” Sikes said. “To have them betray your trust is pretty devastating.”
Both were arrested on a charge of grand theft. Schoneck was released from the Alachua County Jail at 6:40 p.m. She was bonded out for $100,000. Mian remains in jail in lieu of a $500,000 bond, as of press time.
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