Wire fraud scheme results in prison sentence for university official

FLORIDA — A former university executive has been sentenced for his role in a wire fraud scheme.

U.S. District Judge Charlene E. Honeywell has sentenced Brian Carroll, 47, OF New Market, Tennessee, to 15 months in federal prison for wire fraud. The court also entered an order of forfeiture of $42,000, representing the proceeds of the wire fraud scheme.

Carroll pleaded guilty on January 5, 2023.

According to court documents, at the time of the commission of the offense, Carroll was serving as the Executive Vice President of Southeastern University, a private university in Lakeland, Florida. Carroll became involved in a project to redesign the website and digital brand of the university’s President.

Carroll reportedly conducted a self-dealing scheme to enrich himself by setting up an “anonymous” LLC based in New Mexico and setting up a bank account in the name of that LLC, both of which he controlled. The Board of Directors and President of Southeastern University were unaware of Carroll’s involvement in the LLC.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida (USAO), the LLC that Carroll controlled submitted a bid to the university to perform the web rebranding project for $185,000. Carroll recommended and promoted the acceptance of this contract, causing the university to make several wire payments to that LLC for work on the project.

However, unbeknownst to the university, Carroll’s LLC contracted with an unrelated company based in New York to do the actual work on the project and create the new website, said prosecutors.

The New York company reportedly charged Carroll’s LLC $30,000 for the project.

“Carroll thus engineered a scheme to pay his LLC $185,000 for a project that, in reality, cost only $30,000 to perform. He thereby defrauded Southeastern University out of approximately $155,000,” said the USAO.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated this case with the assistance of the Lakeland Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Jay L. Hoffer is prosecuting it.