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University researcher hires actors to testify on his behalf
From the ‘so wild it has to be true’ files comes a story out of Buffalo NY where it seems a former researcher at the University at Buffalo paid professional actors to testify on his behalf during an investigation into whether he falsified data for use in federally funded studies.
According to state prosecutors, 48 year old William Fals-Stewart, a researcher at the University at Buffalo from 2000 to 2005, was being investigated for allegedly inflating the number of research recruits in reports he provided to the National Institutes of Health. To answer the accusations, Fals-Stewart reportedly hired three actors to testify by phone at a university misconduct hearing. The actors were told they were being hired for a mock trial training exercise, but were actually offering sworn testimony before an inquiry panel. Using scripts provided by Fals-Steward, the actors testified that they had worked on his projects at the university’s Research Institute on Addiction.
Following the investigation and the testimony provided by the actors, the inquiry panel recommended that the investigation against Fals-Stewart be dropped. Claiming his reputation had been tarnished, Fals-Stewart filed a federal lawsuit against the state, asking for $4 million. It was actually this greedy maneuver that ultimately got him caught however because it was in preparing to fight the suit that state prosecutors uncovered the fraud.
Fals-Stewart, appearing in Buffalo City Court on Tuesday, was charged with among other things, grand larceny, perjury, and offering a false instrument. Don’t feel too bad for him though, after leaving the University at Buffalo, he was hired as a research scientist at the University of Rochester. And if that doesn’t pan out, he can always get a job as a politician.
Source: AP
