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Pricey Investigation Finds Former UC Berkeley Chancellor Misused Funds

BERKELEY (KPIX 5) -- Former UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks misused $4,990 of University funds.

But the investigation to discover the sum cost ten times that, for a grand total of $57,671, according to The Daily Californian.

An expenditure ten times the cost of offense, why the disconnect?

The former Cal chancellor never paid for his campus gym membership and personal trainer over a two-year period, and even had a campus Precor machine in his home.

He was accused of misusing a total of $4,990 and the Office of the President launched an investigation.

Now, thanks to the the campus newspaper, The Daily Californian's work, it appears the investigation by a private Los Angeles law firm cost the UC system $57,000 -- more than ten times the cost of the misused funds.

The Office of the President racked up the hefty tab figuring it out after Dirks resigned in April of last year.

Here's where that $57,000 went.

According to the Daily Californian, the Office of the President paid the L.A. firm Public Interest Investigations Inc. to look into the matter at the rate of $200 an hour for 279 billable hours.

It also paid for the firm's president to fly from L.A. to Oakland three times and while it was always on Southwest, each ticket never cost less than $400.

His Lyft rides, restaurant bills and hotel rooms were also picked up by the Office of the President.

We reached out to the UC Office of the President via email and telephone requesting an interview Tuesday morning, but never got a response.

UC Berkeley would not comment because the investigation was done by the Office of the President, not Cal. So they referred all of our questions to the Office of the President.

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