The Pennsylvania Ethics Commission on Monday announced it has fined a pair of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania trustees $500 each for failing to file financial disclosure forms for years and then back dating current forms to make it appear they had complied with the law in prior years.
Authorities discovered Cheyney trustees Larry Skinner and Joseph Wells neglected to file state financial disclosure forms for years during a routine compliance audit at Cheyney last summer.
Cheyney, one of the nation’s oldest historically black universities is located in Eastern Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia. The financially struggling school is among 14 state-owned universities in the Pennsylvanian State System of Higher Education.
According to an Ethics Commission order released Monday, Skinner and Wells, when told of the missing forms, quickly filled out blank disclosure forms from 2018, then back dated them to make it appear they had been filed timely and submitted them.
In addition to the fines, the Ethics Commission ordered the men to file accurate forms for all prior years.
