Longtime LaSalle employee fired in alleged fraud

A longtime La Salle University employee was fired this month after officials said they discovered several million dollars missing in an alleged fraud scheme dating back at least 20 years.

La Salle officials confirmed the employee was Stephen C. Greb, 58, director of auxiliary services.

He is accused of setting up a fictitious food company through which he authorized payments from La Salle, said university spokesman Joseph Donovan. Greb's job included oversight of food services. He was also in charge of on-campus catering, mail distribution and printing, and the campus store.

"The fraudulent scheme extends back at least to 1990 and involves several million dollars," Donovan said Monday night.

A call to Greb's Blue Bell home was not returned. A woman reached at a residence under his name in Avalon, N.J., said he was not available.

The university has not yet pressed charges against Greb, but has made the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office aware of the case, said Donovan.

"What we're trying to do is get restitution," Donovan said.

The District Attorney's Office is looking into the matter, spokeswoman Tasha Jamerson said last evening.

La Salle, in East Germantown, is a private Catholic university with about 7,000 students.

University officials discovered the fictitious company through an enhanced invoice-control system put in place in recent years, Donovan said.

Attorneys for the university immediately began to investigate, with the help of a forensic accounting firm, he said. The investigation included interviews and document searches and is ongoing, he said.

University president Michael McGinniss informed staff of the case in an e-mail late Monday afternoon. Greb was not identified in the e-mail as the employee.

The news stunned and saddened the university community.

"There's a feeling of shock and betrayal. They just can't believe something like this would happen," Donovan said. "It's a longtime and highly trusted employee who just exploited a vulnerability in the system."

Greb was hired by La Salle in 1984 as director of food services. He became director of auxiliary services in 2006 and continued to oversee food services in that capacity, Donovan said.

His salary was not available.

Greb was among four participants this year who won the La Salle President's Cup Golf Tournament.