Posted by denised in Last week we reported the story of 48 year old William Fals-Stewart, a researcher at the University at Buffalo from 2000 to 2005 who was being was charged with among other things, grand larceny, perjury, and offering a false instrument after hiring actors to testify on his behalf at a university inquiry:
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.
Well, a reader just alerted us that Fals-Stewart died suddenly on Tuesday afternoon and was pronounced dead at his Eden, N.Y. home. The cause of death has yet to be determined. Real the full story here.
