Here is Hannah McClellan at Christianity Today:
Four months after Liberty University filed a motion to dismiss a whistleblower’s lawsuit, the former dean suing the school amended his complaint with more detail about the alleged fraud he reported to authorities. He alleges that the school offered payouts to third parties and concealed the use of university funding for business expenses.
According to the suit, John Markley made “repeated good faith reports of disturbing violations” of state and federal law at Liberty, only to be terminated from his role as administrative dean for academic operations in June 2022.
“Dr. Markley’s position provided an eye-opening perspective on the inner workings of a multi-billion-dollar enterprise that operated to maximize profits without ethics and at the expense of truth and those willing to fight for it, and to the detriment of the students, and professors,” the lawsuit says.
The university maintains that Markley was let go as part of a reorganization and that his allegations are without merit.
Markley’s original suit lists 15 “improper activities” he said he raised concerns about, including potentially fraudulent management of Liberty charitable organizations and corporate subsidies, the intentional misrepresentation of acceptance rates and enrollment numbers for financial gain, and a compensation scheme for LU business executives.
In a public statement obtained by CT, Strelka Employment Law—which represents Markley—said Liberty filed a demurrer to dismiss the case, arguing that Markley’s allegations “were not sufficiently specific.” The Lynchburg Circuit Court filed an order for Markley to amend his complaint.
The update, filed last Thursday, includes specific allegations about potentially fraudulent management of Liberty charitable organizations in the use of textbook sales, with Markley claiming various Liberty professors started nonprofit or not-for-profit enterprises to sell textbooks directly to Liberty.
According to Markley, this allowed professors to make money from required book sales without paying taxes on the sales or income. Markley also questioned “the academic quality and relevance of the textbooks pushed by professors in this manner,” per the statement.
The updated complaint also details the widespread use of payouts by Liberty to third parties—dubbed “professional fees”—which Markley alleged provided special deals and kickbacks to “friends” of Liberty.
In one instance, Markley said he reported large transactions totaling $1 million “that had been suspiciously withdrawn from the Academic Affairs Budget in line with previous suspicious transactions.”
Finally, Markley alleged various fraud to the public and the government regarding improperly classified workers, the misrepresentation of acceptance rates and enrollment numbers, and the submission of false academic data to the Department of Education.
“In Court, Mr. Markley’s attorney Thomas Strelka cautioned that adding heighted allegations in a public document regarding Liberty University’s wrongdoing would likely not be in Liberty University’s best interest,” the Strelka statement says. “Mr. Markley reported a multitude of illegal, unethical, and immoral activities on the part of Liberty University in the years, months, and weeks leading up to his termination.”
Liberty said in a statement that Markley’s claims “are still without merit” and that the school did not learn about his communication with a federal agency until several months after he left.
Read the rest here.
The case is scheduled for a jury trial on April 10, 2024.