Tech disputes $2 million paid to professors

ATLANTA,None — Two former Georgia Tech engineering professors are accused of scholastic misconduct totaling more than $2 million, Channel 2’s Richard Belcher has learned.

School officials say the husband and wife academic team were double dipping by working for an Israeli university while on the Georgia Tech payroll, but the professors’ attorney said Tuesday that the school audit is badly flawed.

An audit accuses professors Allen and Rina Tannenbaum of malfeasance and contends they violated university and state policies by working at both schools simultaneously.

READ: Georgia Tech Audit On Tannenbaum Case

“The Georgia Tech College of Engineering has confirmed through conversations with Technion that both professors held tenured faculty positions at both institutions since at least 2005 and are currently employed full time with both institutions,” the report states.

Allen Tannenbaum told investigators he had verbally explained his second job, but interviews of Georgia Tech management found no one knew of his dual employment, according to the audit.

The report also questions 13 trips to Israel made by the Tannenbaums. Family attorney Buddy Parker told Belcher his clients wanted to settle the travel issue so they can concentrate on a family illness.

"They'd rather just pay that money to Georgia Tech, get that behind them, so that they could spend their attention, and appropriately so, on taking care of their son," Parker said.

The couple have already repaid Georgia Tech nearly $80,000 but the university is looking at the couple's salaries too. That totals $1.4 million in salary and federally sponsored travel for Allen Tannenbaum and $750,000 for Rina Tannenbaum, the report states.

Parker showed Belcher detailed accounts that the professors prepared for Georgia Tech to explain the work they say they did in Atlanta and in Israel. Parker said flatly that Georgia Tech was not cheated.

"They did their work. Their work is highly praised by their supervisors … and Georgia Tech does not disagree with us on that contention," Parker said.

Earlier this year, another husband and wife team, Francois Sainfort and Julie Jacko, were indicted by a Fulton County grand jury on similar charges of double dipping relating to work at the University of Minnesota.

Parker told Belcher the cases may be trouble for Georgia Tech.

"(It’s) less likely Georgia Tech is going to be able to recruit the best and brightest to their university," Parker said. David McLaughlin of the State Attorney General's office told Belcher that federal authorities are investigating the Tannenbaum allegations.

A Georgia Tech spokesman sent a brief statement that said the two professors resigned on June 30. The professors are now at Boston University. Neither Georgia Tech nor state authorities has made any specific demands for the professors to reimburse the university.

WSBTV