We previously discussed the allegations against former Drexel University professor Chikaodinaka Nwankpa, 57, for using $185,000 on adult entertainment and other personal expenses. He has now been charged criminally with theft by unlawful taking and theft by deception. The charging documents however revealed one curious element. Many of the charges were processed during a window between midnight and 2 a.m.
The former head of Drexel’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering allegedly spent federal grant funds on trips to strip clubs and sports bars in Philadelphia. The money was taken from eight federal grants for energy and naval technology-related research for the Department of the Navy, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. The expenses include more than $96,000 on adult entertainment venues and sports bars as well as more than $89,000 on iTunes purchases, meals and other unauthorized purchases.
When he was appointed to his position in 2015, he was celebrated for his “exceptional leadership as interim department head.” Drexel noted at the time that “he has authored 47 refereed journal papers and 125 conference papers. This has been the result of work that has been supported by grants totaling over $10 million.”
If convicted, he faces up to 14 years in prison.
Sad to see a guy spiraling so out of control. How lonely does someone have to be to embezzle almost $200,000 on strippers and sports bars?
All forms of “Original Intent” were, by definition, fully and irrefutably juridical, constitutional and de facto.
Naturalization Acts of 1790, 1795, 1798 and 1802
United States Congress, “An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” March 26, 1790
“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof…”
What, no cocaine?
Embezzling 200k for strippers and he didn’t even have the common sense to put half of it up his nose. So close, yet so far. He cold have been one of the great ones, but he turned out to be just another common thief.
Oh boy! I get to re-post the epic four stanza Irish Poem I did when this story first came out! One of my better efforts, if I do say so!
Oh well, I guess Chik deserves an Irish Poem! I read that he was concerned with electrical power generation. There is some science in this, but Nick Tesla posited that energy could be transferred without wires*. But this is not something one can do in a single verse. . .
Taken for Grant-ed???
Or, Praise Tesla!!!
An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm
There once was a black engineer
Whose devotion to science was clear!
He felt it his duty,
To check out some booty,
He is now self-employed, I hear.
But, perhaps it was all copicetic-
A study of motions kinetic?
For a bump and a grind,
And the friction behind,
Can make forces electromagnetic!
Sooo, taking his work as a whole,
Re-imagine that greased stripper pole-
As an engineer must –
Calculations of thrust!
Combined with centripedal roll!
An inductive transference occurred!
And we don’t have to just take his word.
For the truth at a glance,
Could be found in his pants!
As his personal rod became stirred!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
*See here – https://futurism.com/stanford-scientists-are-making-wireless-electricity-transmission-a-reality
As a former Navy Chief, I would need to see the grant topics from the Department of the Navy before I agree that spending tens of thousands of dollars on strippers was not integral to the research, as it is consistent with where the paychecks issued from the Navy largely end up.
Drexel has far bigger problems. Drexel’s College of Medicine teaching hospital, Hahnemann University Hospital, was closed last year, a catastrophic event and PR disaster for a medical school. Hundreds of trainee physicians (residents and fellows) and Attending physicians were displaced, making it the largest in US history. The number of medical errors, substandard medical treatments and eventual worsening of illnesses are probably exponential. Hahnemann’s demise is a med-mal attorney dream come true
I tell pre-med students to avoid Drexel
In a disturbing new twist to the closure of Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia last summer, the 572 residents and approximately 100 attending physicians displaced by the closure — plus about 300 additional residents who previously trained at the hospital — now find that the professional liability insurance they had during their time at Hahnemann is about to expire.
https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/displaced-hahnemann-residents-and-attending-physicians-may-soon-lose-liability-insurance
I seem to recall calling the medical society in my little town 25 years ago searching for a new internist. IIRC, Hahnemann and the SUNY Health Sciences Center were on the resumes of just about every doctor taking new patients. I was very satisfied with the doctor I selected (who took early retirement in 2008); I can’t recall where she did her residency. We’ve had treatment at SUNY (now called Upstate Medical), and it’s a disconcerting place (or it was in 2007 / 08 when we were there).
Having served for over 20 years as a contracts and grants manager for the Office of Sponsored Research at two large state universities and as a warranted Grants Officer for a federal agency, I wonder why Drexel’s grant officer continued to approve quarterly reports that must have raised suspicion. I also wonder if the Federal cognizant agency’s debarment officer will suspend or debar Drexel’s grant status and whether Drexel will be fined and the unallowed costs extrapolated across Drexel’s grants.
I also wonder if the Federal cognizant agency’s debarment officer will suspend or debar Drexel’s grant status
They only do that if the grant recipient refuses to use someone’s preferred pronouns.
They’re contending he embezzled > $40,000 a year on these ‘entertainments’? You’d think time constraints would prevent him from spending all that money.
Memo to Jay Nordlinger and Kevin Williamson: if you’re still keeping score, this chap’s almost certainly an American by Choice.
Racism pure and simple. Every electrical engineer in the Navy needs to know how strip club lighting works (true navel research) , sports bars run all those TVs and why every time you buy something on iTunes an angel gets their wings. When will these crackers learn that diversity and income redistribution is our strength? Carry on Chikaodinaka Nwankpa.
What is the BS about a “window” and a time between midnight and 2 a.m.? Were the “charges” typed and signed at that time of night? What is a window? A time period?
Have you seen the movie “hustlers?” That type of situation could be the answer here, since it happened all in one small window. If it happened little by little over time, it would imply more of a habitual issue.
If he authored or co-authorred all those papers, when did he have time for stripper bars?
Research, Paul. Research.
mespo – and I spent all that time in the library. 😉 I should have thought outside the university. 🙂
I did a lot of “alcohol use among young adults” surveys in college and law school. The paper is coming out when I damn well please.
mespo – will that come out with “Bad Dating Choices While Intoxicated”?
Paul:
It’s the sequel along with my most beloved paper: “Survey of Alcohol Aspiration Sites in Alleyways of the Mid-Atlantic.” It’s truly a triumvirate of useful knowledge. Now that’s academia.