NC State associate professor Scott Whisnant of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences was charged Feb. 11 with embezzling more than $70,000 from the Animal Science Club, Alpha Zeta and Agri-Life Council. Whisnant wired $50,354.69 of that to one of his former Ph.D. students to help her buy a Prius and pay for medical expenses and a trailer, according to a search warrant.

Whisnant resigned a day before he turned himself in to authorities. The treasurer for the Animal Science Club noticed that Whisnant had withdrawn $54,255 from the club’s account. Only Whisnant and the treasurer had access to the accounts, and none of the advisers or animal science executive board members authorized the withdrawals.

Whisnant told the treasurer that she shouldn’t worry because he needed to take the cash in order to avoid the IRS audit, according to the search warrant.

The treasurer later told Whisnant that the club was running out of funds before the North Carolina State Fair, and he asked her how much they needed. He told her he would deposit the money needed into the account.

Whisnant said he took the money out to help his former Ph.D. student Lisa Mcphatter. He said he felt sorry for her because of her medical issues and her broken down car that could not be fixed.

 In an interview with Detective Jeffery R. Morales, an officer from University Police, he said the Animal Science Club treasurer told him, “she heard that [Whisnant] had a situation dealing with a Ph.D. student and thought he was paying for a love child but was not sure,” according to the search warrant. 

Mcphatter said Whisnant had sent her money through a bridge loan for her, but the Animal Science Business Office said that no such loan exists.

Todd See, the head of animal science department, stopped by Whisnant’s office after his resignation and discovered multiple bank statements that showed thousands of dollars worth of withdrawals from accounts dating back to 2013.

Some of the statements appeared to be from Whisnant’s retirement account. See said it seemed like Whisnant tried to reimburse the club accounts with money from his retirement account, according to the search warrant.

See also found records of correspondence between Whisnant and Mcphatter talking about coordinating how to cover up their story to university officials and purchasing computers with the embezzled money.

Whisnant embezzled a total of $72,021.56 from the three student organizations. He embezzled $52,655 from Animal Science Club and wired $39,400 of that money to Mcphatter. He withdrew $13,255 as cash. The $1,600 discrepancy between $54,255 and $52,655 is not accounted for in the search warrant. 

He embezzled $18,616.56 from Alpha Zeta, and wired $10,954.69 of it to Mcphatter. He withdrew $7,661.87 as cash. He withdrew $750 in cash from Agri-Life.