MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Two Middle Tennessee State University students are accused of stealing more than $114,000 of student activity fees over a three-year period, authorities said.
Mohamed Gure, 22, and Mohamed Osman, 22, were arrested Tuesday and booked into the Rutherford County Jail, according to a news release from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Gure was indicted on one count of theft over $10,000, 30 counts of forgery and two counts of criminal simulation, according to the TBI. Osman was indicted on one count of theft over $60,000, 28 counts of forgery, and two counts of criminal simulation.
Bail was set at $60,000 for Gure and $50,000 for Osman, the TBI said.
JUST IN: Two @MTSU
— Mye Owens (@myeowenstv) March 10, 2021
students have been charged with stealing $114K from student organizations @WKRNhttps://t.co/wJ5v4I3yzE
“These allegations are disappointing and will be forcefully addressed. I want to thank our administrators and auditors who reported their suspicions to the State Comptroller for review,” university President Sidney A. McPhee said in a statement. “If proven to be true, we will pursue every appropriate legal and campus judicial action to hold those accountable and recoup the funds.”
TBI officials said the investigation began in November 2020 when agents were asked to investigate theft allegations involving Middle Tennessee State University’s Somali Student Association and Muslim Student Association, WTVF reported. Investigators said Gure and Osman, two leaders of the student groups, fraudulently obtained $114,145 in student activity fee payments from the university, according to WKRN.
“(That is) a very significant amount of money,” John Dunn, spokesperson for Tennessee’s Comptroller’s Office, told WZTV.
During their time in office, the Comptroller’s Office said Gure and Osman submitted at least 85 false invoices to the university, many of which were for nonexistent vendors, to obtain reimbursements totaling $82,200 in student activity fee funds, WKRN reported.
A commonly reimbursed expenditure was honorarium payments for public speakers, but the public speaking events never occurred, the television station reported.
“These two students had the primary scheme,” Dunn told WZTV. “They were fabricating invoices, saying they paid money to groups and vendors, money that they didn’t pay for events that they never hosted and they were being reimbursed based on those faulty fabricated invoices.”
The full report from the Comptroller’s Office can be read here.
Cox Media Group
