U.S. officials raid Administration and Finance

The Administration and Finance office and two warehouses on campus were raided early Thursday morning as a result of a search warrant issued by the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Department of Health and Human Services (including the Office of the Inspector General), Sonoma County Sheriff's Office, and other agencies arrived on campus to confiscate computers and documents. Knowledge of their presence quickly spread throughout campus and became a topic of discussion in many classes.

"Search warrants were issued at the administration and finance buildings at Sonoma State University in conjunction with a joint investigation into allegations of misappropriation of federal grant funds," said Sonoma County District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua.  "This was a multi-faceted operation."

The warrant comes as a result of an audit on the California Institute of Human Services, a program that provided services for child abuse, literacy, family violence and pre-school and after-school programs.

Investigators were searching for documents pertaining to 20 grants made by the CIHS before its closure in 2007 due to problems and questions associated with prohibited distribution and documentation of funds.

An audit released that same year estimated that the institute spent over $2 million dollars on suspicious expenditures, involving payroll and purchasing records. After the institution closed its doors, all documents referring to these issues were transferred to computers and files kept in Administration and Finance and the warehouse.

At one time, the CIHS had 125 employees who worked to train and educate others for local social service agencies. It operated to obtain state and federal funds for SSU and by 2006 had received $22 million.

 The audit found that the center handled this money in a less than favorable fashion.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars were improperly billed, given out in unauthorized labor costs and administrators were handed out payments funded by donations from non-profit groups, according to reports in the Press Democrat.