UF’s senior director for Housing and Residence Education was fired Monday after he was arrested on charges of grand theft and allegations of fraud, UF announced Wednesday afternoon.
Azfar Mian, 41, and five other UF Housing employees believed to be involved, were placed on administrative leave Sept. 18 and trespassed from campus amid an internal audit, and Mian was arrested by University Police.
Mian is believed to have spent more than $180,000 in university funds, mostly with his UF-issued credit card, for personal use since as early as January 2016. The alleged fraudulent purchases include lunch meal reimbursements, furniture for his Micanopy home, televisions, seven cell phones and his internet and electricity bills, according to Alligator archives.
The investigation by UF’s Office of Internal Audit, which started in April, is still ongoing. Once complete, UF will have a better idea of how nearly 15 months of alleged fraudulent purchases and reimbursements went unnoticed, wrote UF spokesperson Janine Sikes in an email.
On Monday, one of the suspected employees, Housing Information and Technology worker Kevin Morgan, was cleared after UF was able to confirm he was not involved in the alleged fraud, Sikes said.
Morgan will return to work Thursday.
The other four UF Housing employees under investigation are Jennifer Andrews, Mian’s executive assistant; Stina Schoneck, the associate director of financial services; Dirk Smith, a warehouse and stores specialist; and Curtis Harris, a Housing employee, according to an email that was sent internally among UF housing staff last week and was obtained by the Alligator last week.
They remain on administrative leave, as of press time, Sikes said.
Norb Dunkel, an associate vice president of Student Affairs and a former UF Housing executive director, will oversee the department in the interim, according to Alligator archives.
Any unpaid wages or other pay owed to Mian will be retained by UF to offset debts and restitution determined by the audit office, according to Mian’s termination letter.
“Any compensation he would have been entitled to is being withheld as part of that restitution,” Sikes said.
Mian made $170,039 a year as senior director.
On Sept. 20, Mian’s attorney filed a non-guilty plea and request for a jury trial, according to county court records.
Sikes said Mian had worked for UF Housing since May 2004.
“We were deeply saddened to learn that a trusted leader and manager who had been with the university more than a decade was the subject of such serious charges,” Sikes said.
