Attorney General Gansler Announces Tenth Conviction in the Ongoing Corruption Investigation at UMBC

BALTIMORE, MD (March 25, 2009) – Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced today that a tenth individual has been convicted in the ongoing corruption investigation at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). William Frank Woolford, 54, of Pasadena, pled guilty in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County before Judge John G. Turnbull, II to conspiracy to commit theft.

Woolford, President of TFC Automation, Inc. of Baltimore, admitted that from 2001 through 2002, he conspired with Christopher Keehner and George Alinsod, the former Director of Construction Services at UMBC, to steal money from the University. Woolford directed Keehner to inflate invoices on a project, pass them through Woolford’s company, and use the excess profits to fund purchases for Alinsod and Woolford. Woolford passed the intentionally inflated invoices onto Alinsod who authorized the University to issue payments for the inflated invoices. The over-billing scheme created a slush fund that was used to finance an all-expenses-paid golf trip to Ireland for the co-conspirators and others. Sentencing is scheduled for May 19, 2009.

The case was referred by the UMBC Police Department and the University System of Maryland Internal Audit Office, and is being investigated by the Attorney General’s Criminal Division and the Maryland State Police.