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The state auditor’s probe would mark the fourth overall on the issue. WSU has already provided the material to the U.S. Attorney’s office, the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Ohio Inspector General.
The state auditor’s office declined to comment on the matter.
In 2015, a federal investigation came to light of WSU’s potential misuse of the federal H-1B work visa program, which led to four administrators being suspended; two remain on paid leave.
This newspaper revealed that Wright State sponsored 19 foreign workers who came to the U.S. to work at an area information technology staffing company that paid the workers less than what local graduates typically make for similar IT work.
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Immigration experts say it’s possible the arrangement violated immigration laws designed to prevent staffing agencies from trafficking in cheap labor from overseas.
In April, WSU trustees asked the university’s attorney to make referrals for further investigations to the state out of “an abundance of caution,” said Doug Fecher, chairman of WSU’s board of trustees. The latest probe is likely another response to those referrals, which Fecher described as “routine.”
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In June, Fecher said he did not know who was mentioned in the referrals or how many WSU’s attorney made.
“The (internal audit) report is being thoroughly investigated because we want to get to the bottom of it,” Fecher said. “Its going exactly the way the board expected it to go.”
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