Former Campus Radio Engineer Charged With Stealing Over $200K from College of DuPage

Caption: John Valenta | DuPage County Sheriff

A former college radio station engineer with a prior theft conviction was charged Thursday with felony theft after he allegedly submitted fake invoices for radio equipment totalling over $200,000 that was never delivered to the college.

John Valenta, 65, of Wheaton was charged with one count of theft in excess of $100,000, a class 1 felony, following a 13-month investigation by the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office and the College of DuPage.

Valenta was employed as a radio station engineer at the college radio station in Glen Ellyn for approximately 30 years.

Prosecutors said that in October 2013, an internal audit revealed an abnormally large number of costly invoices for radio station engineering services from a company that Valenta owned called Broadcast Technologies.

Many of the invoices Valenta submitted were for repairs to the radio transmitter for WDCB, which were Valenta’s responsibility, according to the charges.

Prosecutors said that from June 2006 through December 2013, Valenta submitted the phony invoices from Broadcast Technologies to the college for work purported to be done at WDCB.

The fradulent invoices, totalling $200,829, were for merchandise and labor, that were never delivered to the college radio station, according to the charges.

“The allegations in this case clearly illustrate the concept of simple greed,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in written statement. “The defendant had a good job for more than two decades before he allegedly decided to illegally supplement his income at the expense of the College of DuPage.

In May 2012, Valenta pleaded guilty to theft charges for creating fake invoices payable to Broadcast Technologies and keeping the cash while employed at Elmhurst College’s campus radio station, the Chicago Tribune reported.

From 2009 and 2010, Elmhurst College security officials said that college paid Valenta more than $37,000 for his work and equipment..

The Chicago Tribune said that in 2011 Elmhurst College began looking into Valenta’s billing when two students from the campus radio station noticed an invoice for turntable-related equipment, when in fact, the station did not have a turntable.

Elmhurst College security officials told the paper that when they began their investigation, they could not find several of the items that Valenta had expensed. Eventually, the college turned over the findings of its investigation to the Elmhurst Police Department in February 2011, which opened its own investigation. Valenta was arrested the next month.

Elmhurst police also reportedly found bogus invoices that Valenta had submitted from two other companies, the Chicago Tribune reported.

A school security official said that documentation Valenta submitted “looked like it should,” making it hard to detect.

Valenta reportedly told Elmhurst police that he stole money from the school because he didn’t think he was getting compensated enough.

The Wheaton man was sentenced in May 2012 to two years’ probation and ordered to pay $11,270, the amount of the fabricated expenses.

According the Chicago Tribune, Valenta repaid the bulk of the money 2013.

Elmhurst College security officials claim that in 2011 they warned the College of DuPage of Valenta’s crimes at their school. Despite the communication, Valenta remained employed at the community college, where he continued to embezzle money from the campus radio station, prosecutors said.

College of DuPage issued a statement on Thursday afternoon communication between the Elmhurst College and COD police departments in 2011:.

“Outside political action groups have asserted that College of DuPage employees were made aware of former WDCB employee John Valenta’s arrest while working for Elmhurst College in 2011. Following an internal review, it remains unclear about the nature of the communication between the Elmhurst College and COD Police Departments in the first six months of 2011.

“President Robert L. Breuder has engaged an outside law firm for the limited purpose of reporting to the COD Board of Trustees findings stemming from any communications of the 2011 arrest of John Valenta. When the report is completed, it will be provided to President Breuder and the Board Chairman. As quoted in a Feb. 19, 2015, Chicago Tribune article, former WDCB Manager Scott Wager, Valenta’s former immediate supervisor, maintains that he did not know Valenta owned the company Broadcast Technologies, which has been alleged to be used to defraud the College.

“As in the past, the College will continue to cooperate fully with the DuPage State Attorney’s Office during their prosecution in this matter.”

The former College of DuPage radio engineer is also reportedly employed as a contract at North-Central College in Naperville, but officials there said they watch Valenta’s billing, the Chicago Tribune said.

Valenta was taken into custody Thursday without incident on a $400,000 arrest warrant issued by the College of DuPage Police Department

He appeared in before Judge Robert Rohm, who ordered him held in lieu of $40,000 bond.

Valenta is due back in court on March 5 before Judge Brian Telander.

If convicted, Valenta faces up to 15 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for felony theft.