WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Officials at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have discovered a $3.4 million theft by an employee who died in a car accident last December.
School leaders told The Boston Globe an internal investigation found that financial analyst Leo Villani siphoned funds from payments intended for the state Medicaid insurance program for five years, in what may be the biggest theft by a state employee in more than a decade.
Officials at the Worcester school say Villani made $46,000 a year, but drove a Porsche, collected Salvador Dali paintings and built a large home in Uxbridge. They say he claimed he inherited money.
The school has dismissed one supervisor and disciplined several other workers in response to the theft. The school also has called in an outside auditor.