Prosecutors Drop Probe of Alleged Misuse of Quake Repair Funds

Federal authorities have dropped an investigation into the possible misuse of disaster relief funds set aside for earthquake repairs at Cal State Northridge.

The investigation, launched in July, centered on allegations that university President Blenda Wilson’s husband, Louis Fair Jr., had used campus workers to move office furniture for his own company and paid them with Federal Emergency Management Agency funds earmarked to repair damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

After review of an investigation by FEMA, the U.S. attorney’s office declined to prosecute the case. As a result, FEMA officials closed their investigation, said Michael Janiga, a special agent for FEMA’s inspector general in Oakland.

“We will remain in contact with [Cal State Northridge] campus police and if something else arises, we can re-present it to the U.S. attorney,” Janiga said.

Janiga declined to say what the FEMA investigation revealed.

Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, also declined to discuss specifics of the case.

According to prosecutors, the office might decline a case because either FEMA did not produce sufficient evidence or the amount of federal funds in question is not significant enough to spend the court’s resources and time.

John Chandler, a university spokesman, said the school had not received word that the investigation had been closed. “If the decision was to take no action, we would not necessarily be informed,” he said.

Chandler said a separate, internal investigation is being carried out by campus police, the office of the university auditor and the campus controller’s office.

Federal and university officials began looking into the case after a former campus employee called the agency’s fraud hot line to report the allegations.