Stevens Institute of Technology and its president are in a heap of trouble with the state of New Jersey. New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram says the Hoboken school is in desperate need of reform.
New Jersey is suing Stevens President Harold J. Raveché, accusing him of plundering the school's endowment and receiving $1.8 million in illegal low-interest loans for vacation homes, the New York Times reports. Raveché's salary has tripled over a decade (he received $1.1 million last year), and the lawsuit says that the school hid its financial distress in multiple sets of books, the report says.
"We found extensive misconduct going back years, a pattern of misinformation to the board and misuse of the endowment," Milgram said in an interview with the Times this month.
The IRS is also conducting its own investigation, the Times says. The IRS says Stevens paid $750,000 in penalties and unpaid taxes last year for several of its spinoff technology companies, the report says. Meanwhile, the state's suit says Stevens has borrowed more than $40 million from its endowment since 2000.
Stevens officials and Raveché's lawyer declined comment.
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