Florida A&M Law School has placed Dean Percy Luney on administrative leave after he named as the holder of a $1.75m endowed chair (paying $100k annually) the donor for whom the chair is named in recognition of his $1m gift:
The St. Petersburg Times (via Howard Bashman’s How Appealing Blog):
The administrators at the Florida A&M University law school were thrilled with the $1-million donation. Not only would Kentucky lawyer Shirley Cunningham Jr. create an endowed chair at the new school, his gift would provide FAMU another $750,000 in matching money from the state. But there was a catch. The new Shirley Cunningham Jr. chair that Cunningham agreed to fund in 2001 would be filled by none other than Shirley Cunningham Jr. His annual salary: $100,000, plus benefits worth about $25,000.
Cunningham’s employment ended a few weeks ago when FAMU administrators removed him from the payroll. Interim FAMU president Castell Bryant told the St. Petersburg Times an investigation found no evidence he did work to earn his salary.
The St. Petersburg Times asks: "How will the IRS view the arrangement?" If the press reports are true, this would be a classic quid pro quo case — Mr. Cunningham would be denied a charitable deduction for his $1million donation since he received a very substantial benefit — a 100k/year salary — in return.
