A former St. Johns University dean who is accused of forcing students to work as her servants submitted a slew of questionable expenses including thousands of dollars in credit card advances during trips to a Connecticut casino, a school administrator said today.
Cecilia Chang, 57, who ran the Institute of Asian Studies at the Queens school, submitted nearly $30,000 in expenses for cash advances at the Mohegan Sun casino in Dec. 2008, said Joseph Oliva the university’s general counsel.
Oliva said Chang also misappropriate scholarship funds to her son, and submitted expense statements that appeared to be altered, Oliva said in the trial’s first full day of testimony.
Prosecutors said the so-called “Dean of Mean” used scholarship students, many from overseas, to do her laundry, clean her house, cook and chauffeur her son around, threatening to pull the tuition perks if they did not comply.
Chang is accused of embezzling more than $1 million from the university.