The State - News from Feb. 20, 1987

University of California officials are investigating an embezzlement scheme that may have spread to universities and colleges throughout the Bay Area. Ida Johnson, a former financial aid assistant at UC Berkeley, was sentenced to two years and eight months in state prison and fined $10,000. Court records indicate that Johnson and others wrote checks to friends and relatives who were non-students. A portion of the money was then kicked back to them. UC police detective Ralph Maloney said in court documents that the group may have stolen as much as $250,200 from college and university funds, including $87,000 at UC during the 1985-86 school year.