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Donald Robison sentences to 75 months behind bars
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75 MONTHS BEHIND BARS
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The former longtime STLCC employee embezzled millions of dollars over the course of two decades. FILE COPY Jacob Politte Online Editor most want ed
In December 2019, former STLCC employee Donald Robison was sentenced to 75 months in prison for crimes that included several counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. Court documents state that over a 20 year period (from August 1998 to November 2018), Robison embezzled funds from STLCC; a previous Montage article from April 2019 reported that the college originally believed that the embezzlement had only been occurring for a decade.
Back in April 2019, STLCC Chancellor Jeff Pittman said that school administrators were working to discover how and why funds were being diverted away by Robison to a fictitious company, owned by Robison. Questions regarding how the funds were managed solely by Robison also surfaced during the investigation. According to Pittman, STLCC had previously established an arrangement with Missouri’s Department of Economic Development where the college authorized, administered and dispersed money from the state fund at a 15 percent fee. Robison had the exclusive privilege within the St. Louis metro area to do so while the college also had its own career development program that the funds could be allocated to without incurring a fee; Robison was the manager of this program.
STLCC first became aware of Robison’s crimes in April 2019, at which point they filed a civil suit against him. From that point on, the college fully cooperated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI while launching an internal investigation against Robison. These efforts lead to Robison pleading guilty for the crimes in August, and forfeiting $11 million.
DONALD ROBISON
FBI Special Agent Richard Quinn told KMOV, “we should never forget that for 20 years, Don Robison abused his position of trust to deny Missouri workers and taxpayers’ money intended for them.”
The exact amount that Robison embezzled is still unknown. He had been an STLCC employee for 27 years.
