Woman Who Pleaded Guilty To Fraud Hired By UC Berkeley

BERKELEY, CA -- UC Berkeley recently hired a woman, who pleaded guilty to fraud just last year, to deal with major donations for the College of Letters and Sciences. The Mercury News reported Deborah Kelley will assume the position as major gifts assistant.

The newspaper revealed Kelley pleaded guilty to providing bribes while working as a managing director for Sterne Agee & Leach.

"According to a federal grand jury indictment in New York, from 2014 to 2016, Kelley, then a managing director of sales at Sterne Agee, schemed with another investment firm salesman to bribe Kang. In return, Kang steered $2 billion in pension fund investments to their brokerages, earning them millions of dollars in commissions," the Mercury News reported.

When Patch inquired about Kelley's hire, a spokesman for the university said it is "required by law to maintain confidence regarding personnel matters."

However, "generally speaking, ethical conduct is important to our campus and positions where job responsibilities include, for example, working with minors, handling or having access to cash or personally identifiable information, or having access to secured or restricted areas, require finalists to be fingerprinted and are referred to as 'designated' positions," spokesman Dan Mogulof said.

A criminal conviction doesn't automatically disqualify a candidate from employment, and human resources must conduct an individualized assessment per the UC's policy, Mogulof said.

Read the full story here.

*An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the charges Kelley pleaded guilty to last year. Patch regrets the error.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images