WFSU: Mangum administration hired man convicted of federal felony to $75,000 job

An investigative report published by WFSU, the PBS/NPR for North Florida and Southern Georgia, states that FAMU President Elmira Mangum’s administration hired an individual who was convicted of a federal felony to a job that pays him $75,000 per year.

According to WFSU: “Earlier this year Mangum hired Santoras D. Gamble in FAMU’s office of Communications. What raised eyebrows among FAMU faculty, staff and administrators, is Gamble’s background. He’s paid $75,000 a year. Gamble was convicted of Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, a felony. He was ordered to pay more than $122,000 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Education and Auburn University, where the crime took place. He also shows up the U.S. Department of Education’s annual fraud report to congress in 2012.”  

The United States v. Santoras D. Gamble “Amended Judgment in a Criminal Case” document that is linked to WFSU’s story states that Gamble received a sentence of three years’ probation for the offense.

Rickey Jerome Kleckley, Marcus Keith Byrom, and Wilford Lewis Swint are listed on the court document under the heading “Additional Defendants and Co-Defendants Held Joint and Several.” According to the USDOE report: “The defendants conspired to obtain personal information (e.g., Social Security numbers, dates of birth, etc.) from individuals and then use this personal information to enroll those individuals into graduate degree programs at various universities and to apply for federal student loans.”

The report adds that: “These defendants conducted their conspiracy in conjunction with co-conspirator Santoras Gamble, former Tuskegee University admissions office employee. Santoras pleaded guilty and was sentenced in September 2010.”