The former deputy director of the Department of Transportation-funded National Crash Analysis Center has received a prison sentence in connection with embezzling federal and George Washington University (GWU) research funds, according to information from DOT's Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
Paul G Bedewi, who also was a GWU adjunct professor, was sentenced to serve five months in prison and ordered to pay $80,440 in restitution to GWU. Bedewi pleaded guilty to one felony count of theft from programs receiving federal funds. Bedewi was charged with embezzling $78,602 in DOT and GWU research funds between August 2002 and June 2004 through illegal stipends and unallowable purchases. The OIG investigation found that Bedewi caused the analysis center to issue $36,150 in unauthorized and fraudulent graduate assistant stipends to his wife. Bedewi also used a university purchase card to make $42,452 in unauthorized purchases.
OIG said in the news release that Paul Bedewi is the cousin of Nabih Bedewi, a former GWU engineering professor and former director of the center, who was sentenced in June 2005 to over three years in prison and ordered to pay $872,221 in restitution for embezzling nearly $1 million in DOT and GWU research funds.