The Bobcat Nation

Former UM vice president under investigation
Associated Press

MISSOULA -- A former University of Montana vice president is under investigation by the University of North Texas for trying to broker international agreements that investigators say would have benefited a company he has a stake in.

Lloyd Chesnut was UM's vice president of research and development. He left Missoula in 2003 to take a similar position with UNT.

Chesnut resigned from his University of North Texas post in August, a month after campus officials launched an investigation into the attempted agreements in 2004 and 2005.


While at UNT, officials say Chesnut tried to negotiate educational contracts between several universities, including UM, and a hospital in Saudi Arabia. The deals would have profited a private company in which Chesnut has invested significantly, UNT spokeswoman Deborah Leliaert said.

"Dr. Chesnut failed to disclose his significant interest in an intermediary entity called the (International Education Research Center), which was his ethical obligation to disclose to the university," she said.

UNT would not say how officials learned of Chesnut's connection with the company. But Chesnut did acknowledge his involvement with IERC when the investigation began, Leliaert said.

Chesnut referred all questions to his attorney when contacted by The Missoulian. His attorney did not respond to the newspaper's inquiries.

UNT has been investigating Chesnut since July, when complaints were filed against him for tampering with government records, abuse of his official capacity and conflict of interest. Campus police escorted him from his office, but Chesnut has not been arrested or formally charged with any crime.

Prompted by media reports of the UNT investigation, the Montana Board of Regents has asked UM President George Dennison to review business contracts Chesnut negotiated while in Missoula.

To date, UM has found no evidence of any contracts with IERC, and Dennison said he knows nothing about Chesnut's connection to the company.

"Nothing has shown up to date that would lead us to believe that anything out of the ordinary (took place) in regards to what Chesnut did here," he said.

Dennison said he isn't concerned about how the investigation will reflect on UM, and has only followed the developments from a distance.

"There is no reflection," he said. "I only understand what's going on there very remotely. I haven't talked to anybody at UNT."

"I have had one communication from (Chesnut)," Dennison said. "The communication I heard, he was thinking about suing for defamation of character."

Bay Area Cat wrote:I'm just confused why anyone would make a lateral move from UM to North Texas, unless he was from that area.

grizdoc wrote:

Bay Area Cat wrote:I'm just confused why anyone would make a lateral move from UM to North Texas, unless he was from that area.

The Missoulian ran an article earlier this year about Chestnut's problems - he left UM for UNT because they were willing to pay him 200K+ if I recall correctly.

Here is the unedited article from Saturday's Missoulian -
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006 ... news03.txt

Bay Area Cat wrote:

grizdoc wrote:

Bay Area Cat wrote:I'm just confused why anyone would make a lateral move from UM to North Texas, unless he was from that area.

The Missoulian ran an article earlier this year about Chestnut's problems - he left UM for UNT because they were willing to pay him 200K+ if I recall correctly.

Here is the unedited article from Saturday's Missoulian -
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006 ... news03.txt

Ah, okay. That makes sense. That's about how much it would take to convince someone to relocate to north Texas from Montana. So it wasn't quite as lateral in its entirety as the article suggested.

El_Gato wrote:Maybe he left the fagship before they dredged up his shenanigans there...?

UMclassof2002 wrote:I swear to God I will pistolwhip the next man who says Shenanigans

UMclassof2002 wrote:I swear to God I will pistolwhip the next man who says Shenanigans

longhorn_22 wrote:

UMclassof2002 wrote:I swear to God I will pistolwhip the next man who says Shenanigans

Shenanigans.

coachouert wrote:

UMclassof2002 wrote:I swear to God I will pistolwhip the next man who says Shenanigans

Hey Farva, what's that restaurant you like, with the mozzarella sticks and all the goofy $h!t on the wall?