When The Princeton Tory's financial manager checked the magazine's bank account Friday, he found it was almost $10 million richer.
The financial manager, Ira Leeds '06, registered for online access to The Tory's alumni board account at PNC Bank on Friday to track the magazine's debit cards online.
But on accessing the site, he saw that the magazine had $9.9 million in University funds, according to a Tory statement.
Not only did Leeds have access to The Tory's account, but also to a University one. Leeds said he contacted PNC Bank to report the problem, and was told the University balance was accurate.
Leeds and Tory publisher John Andrews '05 then emailed President Tilghman and Provost Amy Gutmann to report the problem.
"As far as we can tell, students may have had access to general operating accounts at PNC through a legitimate bank account that the Tory Alumni Board has had with PNC since 1988. This couldn't have happened randomly," said Lauren Robinson-Brown '85, University communications director.
Leeds gained access to the website using a taxpayer identification number — assigned to nonprofit groups — that the University had given to The Tory when it gained tax exempt status, said Evan Baehr '05, the magazine's editor-in-chief.
"We were assigned the number by the University, and when we contacted PNC Bank, we were told that the number was correct, so it isn't the bank's problem," he said. "It seems that the University gave us an incorrect taxpayer ID number, an egregious error that shows blatant irresponsibility for the account."
However, Robinson-Brown said the problem was not the University supplying the magazine with an incorrect number, but instead the students using an incorrect number when opening the online account link.
"The Alumni Board of the Tory is a separate organization with its own taxpayer ID, which is what the students should have used to open their account," she said. "Instead, the students apparently supplied University information on the application for the account link. The University taxpayer ID number was solely provided to The Tory so that they could participate in tax exempt status, like other student groups at the University."
PNC Bank has notified the University that it has blocked online access to the accounts in question, she said.
The Tory's staff has asserted that the University did not respond quickly enough to this situation, but Robinson-Brown said the University acted immediately.
When they received The Tory's email, Gutmann and Tilghman contacted the University treasurer's office, which then contacted Leeds, Robinson-Brown said.
The office also spoke with PNC Bank Monday morning to freeze the accounts and address the problem, Robinson-Brown said.
No unauthorized transactions have occurred.
The University is currently working with the bank to tighten security and investigate the incident.
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