The former director of the Missouri State University bookstore has been sentenced to five years and three months in prison for a more than $1 million embezzlement scheme.
Mark Brixey, 48, of Ozark, also is ordered to pay $1.3 million in restitution to victims of the scheme, including $163,227 to MSU, $166,247 to the Internal Revenue Service and $1 million to Zurich American Insurance Co., according to a news release from the office of Tammy Dickinson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
MSU recovered much of its loss in July when Zurich issued a $1 million insurance check.
Bookstore director from 1998 to August 2012, Brixey pleaded guilty in March to wire fraud, money laundering and filing a false tax return. He admitted he embezzled $1.2 million from the bookstore's student textbook buy-back program. The 10-year scheme began in 2003 with the theft of nearly $29,000, and Brixey escalated the amount each year, with more than $190,000 stolen during each of the last two full years he was employed at the school. He embezzled another $20,580 before resigning in
August 2012.
As director, Brixey was in charge of all contracts related to the textbook buy-back program, which allowed MSU students to sell their used textbooks at the end of semesters to Follett Educational Services under a contract with the university. Follett operated 10 stations on the Springfield campus during finals week in December and May of each year, the release said.
On the last day of the buy-back periods, a Follett representative would prepare a report detailing how many textbooks were purchased, calculate the commissions owed to MSU and draft a check - or sometimes pay cash - to Brixey for payment of the commissions. Follett also purchased textbooks no longer used by MSU professors directly from the bookstore and disposed of the surplus textbooks by selling them to wholesalers such as MBS Textbook Exchange Inc. and Nebraska Book Co.
Brixey admitted to taking the checks to the MSU bursar's office and falsely claiming the checks were needed to pay students for books purchased in the buy-back program. Relying on that misrepresentation, the bursar's office provided cash to Brixey. The director did not record the cash in the bookstore's accounting system, instead using it for his personal benefit, the release said.
The case was prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Oliver. It was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, the Springfield Police Department and the Greene County prosecuting attorney.
