Jacqueline Perlin
Assistant News Editor
Amidst the ongoing fraud investigation at York, The Toronto Star has published an article alleging that a York employee was fired after disclosing information related to the investigation.
Ken Tooby, the coordinator of investigations for security, parking, and transportation services, was terminated from York University earlier this week.
Toronto Star reporter Tony Van Alphen wrote in an October 23 article that Tooby was dismissed after he was involved in disclosing fraud allegations involving Michael Markicevic, former York assistant vp of campus services and business operations.
While the Star has labelled Tooby a “whistleblower” in the investigation, Wallace Pidgeon of York media relations claims his dismissal was in no way related to the Markicevic investigation.
“The termination of Ken Tooby is not connected to the current police investigation concerning alleged fraud activities occuring at York University,” says Pidgeon.
Though he was unable to disclose information as to why
Tooby was dismissed due to confidentiality clauses, Pidgeon adds that Tooby was, in fact, not the employee that came forward to inform York management about suspected fraud activities at the university, and was not responsible for any aspect of the investigation of suspected fraudulent activities.
“I don’t know where [Van Alphen] got that, I don’t know how he got that,” says Pidgeon.
The alleged fraudulent activities involving Markicevic occurred between 2007 and 2010. Markecivic was dismissed from the university in February 2010 after the administration accused him of theft in the sum of $1.2 million.
The university later hired Navigant, a third-party forensic accounting firm, to prepare a case file and turned over the results to the police investigation in May.
At the time of his dismissal, Markicevic claimed he was wrongly accused of theft and has since continued to deny the allegation.
Excalibur was unable to reach Tooby for comment.
