SEATTLE — Washington state wants a former Evergreen State College professor to pay nearly $120,000 for violating state ethics rules, a fine that is approximately twice the amount of money he gained during years of overcharging students for the trips he led abroad, the director of the Washington State Executive Ethics Board said Friday.
It’s the largest fine the board has ever imposed, but not as high as the law allows, according to legal documents filed by the board. The next largest fine in the board’s history was $30,000 a few years ago.
The fine against Latin American studies instructor Jorge Gilbert was based on five ethics law violations times the 41 students who were overcharged between 2005 and 2008, said ethics board director Melanie de Leon.
The board can fine up to $5,000 per violation, or three times the personal gain, which in this case was estimated to be nearly $55,000. Included in the fine is $9,900 to reimburse the college for money it paid out for trip expenses that were not reimbursed by Gilbert.
But de Leon said this case is about more than numbers and dollars.
“It was pretty egregious. It went on for several years, it has to do with students and he was making money off of this,” she said, adding that it was the worst case she remembers from her more than three years as executive director. Most cases heard before the ethics board are about misuse of state resources, conflicts of interest and giving contracts to friends or family members.
“He had a financial interest and was making a lot of money off of these trips, over and above his salary that he would have received as a teacher,” de Leon said.
Gilbert was not immediately available for comment. His phone number in Olympia has been disconnected, and a call to an attorney that represented him during a previous lawsuit was not immediately returned.
The ethics board found Gilbert violated five state ethics rules by conducting college business with family members, making money off those contracts and depositing student money into personal accounts. He did not follow college or state procedures for working with foreign vendors or for entering into contracts and did not file the paperwork required.
Gilbert was not present at the hearing when the Washington State Executive Ethics Board heard the evidence against him, but de Leon said he did answer the complaint against him in writing when the state auditor’s office looked into the situation. He has a right to appeal in the courts, de Leon said.
The order mailed to his Olympia address this week requires him to respond with either the money or a proposed payment plan within 180 days.
The ethics board took up the case after the college referred it to the state. Evergreen State College had conducted its own audit of Gilbert’s trips after 11 students who participated in his 2008 academic trip to Chile sent a letter to the college president through a private attorney, asking for a refund for excessive charges and because they said the professor did not deliver the academic content they were promised.
After the college audit, Evergreen officials decided it would be appropriate to bring the matter to the attention of the state auditor, said college spokesman Jason Wettstein. At that time, Gilbert also paid the college $23,579 for reimbursements they gave students who took the 2008 trip to Chile.
“It’s good to see this matter settled for now and beyond our internal processes,” Wettstein said Friday.
Gilbert retired from the college in December 2009, as part of a settlement after the internal audit. He had worked at the college since 1988 and taught classes on South American history, politics and economics.
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