Former URI Clerk Pleads No Contest to Embezzling from University

Fred Randall, 61, the Warwick man and former University of Rhode Island employee who allegedly embezzled $200,000 from the school between 2005 and 2011, has pleaded no contest to embezzlement charges.

Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin announced Randall's plea and subsequent sentencing to 20 years with four to serve at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston. He will also pay full restitution of $200,000 in the sentence, which was stayed until July 1.

Randall was employed as a fiscal clerk and later as a senior teller at the College of Continuing Education at URI's Feinstein campus in Providence.

Kilmartin said in a release that Randall collected tuition payments and prepared deposits. In the scheme, he "mismatched checks with deposits allowing him to steal the difference."

The thefts were to deal with an ongoing gambling addiction.

“While many students and families struggle to pay for the ever increasing cost of higher education, it is not only illegal, but also immoral and insulting for Fred Randall to siphon money from the University to feed his growing gambling addiction,” Kilmartin said.

The case was investigated by the Rhode Island State Police.  Corporal Claire Demarais and Investigator Gerard Ratigan, a Certified Fraud Examiner in the Financial Crimes Unit. Special Assistant Attorney General Roger Demers prosecuted the case on behalf of the Office of Attorney General.

The investigation began after URI financial staff at the university's Kingston staff noticed discrepancies and called in the State Police Financial Crimes Unit.

Randall was first employed at URI in September 1978 as a fiscal clerk. He became a senior teller at the Providence Campus in October 1997. He retired on March 11, 2011, several months before his arrest in December of that year.