Former university official faces 20 years for siphoning payments

A former official at Southeastern University in Lakeland faces 20 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty last week to defrauding the university.

Brian Carroll, 46, pled to one count of wire fraud for creating a false corporation and then getting the university to hire that corporation for a marketing project. A sentencing date has not been set.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Carroll was working as the executive vice president of Southeastern, a small Christian university in Lakeland with about 2,300 students on campus, when he created a corporation in New Mexico and opened a bank account and an email address in the company’s name.