WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod was charged Friday with felony theft and theft by swindle, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Allegedly McLeod, the former athletic director at Minnesota-Duluth, used money from the university to pay off personal expenses.
According to the Star Tribune, the criminal complaint accuses McLeod of depositing over $2,800 of university money into his personal account, and using nearly $15,000 of university money to pay off a personal home-equity loan during the years 1992 and 1993.
McLeod’s attorney, Steven Pihlaja, told the Star Tribune that McLeod will plead not guilty and wants a trial to show that he had the permission of his boss, Greg Fox, UMD’s vice chancellor of finance and operations, to use the money to pay for university expenses.
The WCHA voted to conduct an unscheduled audit, but has made no immediate action toward McLeod’s status as commissioner.
