MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Greer Industries has filed suit against the WVU Foundation, alleging the organization took steps to benefit a few and not the university or state as a whole.
The lawsuit was filed Monday, Feb. 2, in Monongalia County Circuit Court. Greer Industries is named as the only plaintiff and the WVU Foundation is named as the sole defendant.
According to the lawsuit: The Foundation works in tandem with the university to advance the institution’s educational and research purposes by raising money.
Greer alleges that the Foundation has been “corrupted by a cadre of self-interested, self-dealing individuals” who view the Foundation and the university as an opportunity for personal profit. Part of the lawsuit focuses on the Foundation’s investment in WV Media Holdings Inc. The media corporation is one that IMG subcontracted to use when it was awarded the university’s media rights in 2013.
In 2007, an audit of the WVU Foundation found that the organization made a $2 million equity investment and $5.75 million in other investments to WV Media. Then-Foundation Vice President of Investment and Chief Information Officer Dorothy Dotson also served from 2002 to 2008 on the advisory board of WV Media.
The suit states that in violation of the Foundation’s conflict of interest policy, Dotson received $100,000 in stock from WV Media.
In 2007, the Foundation sold its investment in WV Media for $2.7 million, thereby losing $5 million…
