An assistant professor at WashU School of Medicine admitted to embezzling over $400k. (Sam Powers | Student Life)

Former WashU School of Medicine (WUSM) assistant professor Gary Grajales-Reyes admitted to embezzling $412,163 while employed by the school, according to a press release published yesterday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. He pled guilty to three counts of wire fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and is awaiting sentencing on Dec. 4 of this year. 

According to a since-removed biography on WUSM’s website, Grajales-Reyes was an assistant professor who earned his MD/Ph.D. from WUSM and his bachelor’s from the University of Puerto Rico. He specialized in immunobiology within WUSM’s Department of Pathology & Immunology and has been associated with WUSM since at least 2015.    

Grajales-Reyes requested computer parts purportedly for his lab before selling them for personal profit on eBay and Amazon. 

“Grajales-Reyes submitted 73 false requisition requests to WashU Medicine for internal and external hard drives and graphics cards, which included approximately 761 different computer parts,” reads the press release shared by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “As a result of his scheme, WashU Medicine and Washington University paid approximately $412,163 for the computer parts, which Grajales-Reyes then sold for money which he used for his own personal expenses.”

During a search of his lab, federal law enforcement officials found “collectible trading cards” that were purchased with a portion of the embezzled funds. He now faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count.

Julie Flory, Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications for WashU, said that Grajales-Reyes is no longer employed by the University but provided no further comment. Researchers connected to his lab said that they have no additional information aside from what was included in the press release.  

In 2022, Grajales-Reyes was one of 103 recipients of an Early Independence Award granted by the National Institutes of Health to promising, young scientists doing “high-risk, high-reward” research. According to an article published in The Source in Nov. of 2022, Grajales-Reyes planned to use the grant to work on innovative Alzheimer’s therapies. The article recognizing him for receiving the award was removed from WashU’s website within the past two months. 

This is not the first time that an individual employed by WUSM has embezzled funds from the University.

Barbara Skudrzyk, Business Director for the Division of Medical Education within WUSM, admitted to embezzling more than $300,000 between the years of 2010 and 2018. Skudrzyk stole the money by falsifying W-9 tax forms to fraudulently pay for contractor services and by forging the signatures of other WUSM employees to obtain gift cards.

She used the embezzled funds to buy jewelry and purchase international flights for herself and her family, along with other personal spending. In 2019, she was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

Both cases were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with cooperation from WashU.  

This is a developing story that will be updated as new information becomes available.