The University suffered a sudden spike in payroll fraud cases during the first two months of the semester. A total of four incidents were reported to the LSU Police Department, two reports of criminal payroll fraud and two reports of attempted payroll fraud. All four cases named student workers as the primary suspects.
The two criminal fraud reports resulted in the arrest of two student workers who cheated the system to add money they didn’t earn to paychecks. One of these student workers forged her supervisor’s signature on 27 separate time sheets, receiving an income of approximately $9,000.
LSUPD received two reports of attempted payroll fraud from the Cox Communications building in the month of February. An investigation by LSUPD led to the arrest of two student workers who falsified their hours on their time sheets to collect more pay.
After the final two arrests of the two student workers, the rate of payroll fraud cases decreased. However, following the decrease in the cases of payroll fraud committed by students, the University suffered a different type of fraud from one of the campus restaurants.
LSUPD arrested six employees from the McDonald’s located in the Student Union after an investigation revealed the employees were overcharging student’s Tiger Cards for meals and pocketing the difference.
All six employees, including some managers, were arrested and booked into East Baton Rouge Parish prison for felony theft.
The arrests led to speculation concerning whether employees of other businesses on campus may be committing the same crime.
A news release from the Louisiana State Treasurer’s Office revealed nearly 4,000 students and alumni were affected by the fraud scheme, all of whom were assisted in reclaiming their stolen money by the Treasurer’s Office.