Stephen Wells is a geologist by profession, but after becoming president of one of the state’s most prestigious universities, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, he became a financial sleuth.
He wanted to know why all of Socorro-based New Mexico Tech’s short-term funds — to the tune of more than $46 million in cash — were parked at a single local bank that paid an “extremely low” rate of return, according to a new whistleblower protection lawsuit filed in state district court in Santa Fe.
Wells contends his questioning of that practice and other “critical issues of mismanagement” cost him his job. He was abruptly “forced out” a month after the bank’s lawyer became president of New Mexico Tech’s Board of Regents, his lawsuit states.
“He did nothing wrong except he stepped on toes,” said one of his lawyers, Joleen Youngers.
Wells discovered the university was losing millions of dollars in interest income that his lawsuit states “would have gone to the benefit of the university and students.” An outside university lawyer and an accounting firm he consulted confirmed as much, his lawsuit stated. But when he informed the school’s Board of Regents of his concerns in 2020, the regents took no action.
He also investigated the mismanagement of endowment funds; the payment of $1 million in unjustified royalties; the improper use of certain scholarship funds; and the continued employment of an employee “who was given a six-figure salary by a member of the...
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