A former Tucker Foundation administrative assistant is under criminal investigation for allegedly embezzling thousands of dollars from the service organization, sources close to the query told The Dartmouth.
Jason Keenum, a resident of Hartford, Vt., abruptly resigned his post in April after purportedly using funds earmarked for Tucker's "Alternative Spring Break" trips to buy between $10,000 and $15,000 worth of electronic equipment, music recordings and literature, sources said.
No charges have been filed in the case, but Hanover Police Chief Nick Giaconne said evidence will be presented to a grand jury for an indictment at an as-yet unspecified date.
Through his role as bookkeeper for Tucker's Department of Fellowships and Internships, sources said Keenum acquired and misused fundraising monies from student trip participants during the 2002 Winter term.
Keenum refused requests to discuss his employment at Tucker.
Internal auditors did not find accounting flaws in Tucker's budget until an examination of the previous year's fiscal accounts two months later, Dean of the Tucker Foundation Stuart Lord said.
Both the Hanover Police Department and the Department of Safety and Security were immediately notified, Lord said. Since then, Keenum has been named as a suspect in an ongoing investigation conducted by the Hanover Police Department.
Rather than accept students' personal checks toward the cost of the trips, the 25-year old employee often asked them to submit cash, according to one source close to the investigation.
This was an apparent attempt to conceal his diversion of the funds, the source said. "Instead of the money being deposited in a college account, it was being pocketed and the students were being given fake receipts."
Students involved in the six service-oriented Spring Break trips were able to continue their projects as planned, though Tucker was forced to draw on endowment reserves to make up for losses that constituted over 1 percent of its annual operating budget, Lord said.
"I don't think anyone smelled a rat," a source said, noting that the Dartmouth community and those at Tucker in particular are often characterized by their trusting nature. "This is a community based on trust and it's not until someone exploits the system that you know something is wrong."
After Tucker employees and student volunteers noticed problems with the Alternative Spring Break accounts, Keenum quit his job without explanation, a person familiar with the situation said.
In a sudden mid-morning departure during the week of April 15, Keenum left only a resignation letter in a workspace strewn with what sources described as "graphic" paraphernalia that espoused his born-again Christian beliefs.
One source said that the 120 students participating in spring break trips were contacted by Tucker in an attempt to account for the missing funds.
Keenum was variously described as a "soft-spoken," "passive-aggressive" and "friendly" individual who frequently interacted with students. "He considered some students to be his personal friends," said a source. "He expressed quite often to them that he did not like [Lord]."
Keenum previously worked other jobs at the College, including positions at the Tuck School and the Facilities, Operations and Management office.
Hired as an administrative assistant to Tucker's Director of Fellowships and Internships in the fall of 2000, Keenum thus gained access to College-issued procurement cards printed with his name, sources said. The use of such cards is a common privilege granted to employees in academic and administrative departments, as well as student organization leaders.
Consulting a prepared statement during his interview, Tucker Dean Lord said repeatedly that his organization is "cooperating fully with the authorities" but declined to comment on the specifics of the case.
Tucker maintains its "zero-tolerance policy" on any misuse of funds and has instituted "tighter and stronger" internal auditing practices since discovering the embezzlement, Lord said.
"We are confident in our systems and in the services we provide," he added.
