KANSAS CITY, MO.

UMKC hires new deans for two colleges

The University of Missouri-Kansas City has hired two new deans for vacant positions.

Bryan F. LeBeau, a longtime history professor at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., will be the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The college, with 165 professors, has been without a permanent dean for almost two years.

William P. Osborne, dean of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Dallas, will be the dean of the university’s School of Interdisciplinary Computing and Engineering.

LeBeau and Osborne will begin their new jobs on July 1.

Wichita

Broker pleads innocent to missing funds charge

Stockbroker Richard Scott Wood pleaded innocent Wednesday to 32 charges related to nearly $2 million missing from a Boeing credit union.

Wood, 36, has been accused of taking $1.9 million from about 30 accounts with the Boeing Wichita credit union. He was released on $50,000 bond.

The grand jury indictment against Wood says he withdrew funds from members’ accounts without their authorization. Thirty of the charges accuse Wood of bank fraud.

Credit unions are not allowed to directly offer investment services. The credit union hired Wood to provide those services, and he rented an office at the credit union.

Harrisburg, Pa.

Executives plead guilty in million-dollar fraud

Two executives of a Lebanon County company pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges they defrauded the company of more than $1 million over four years.

Thomas W. Lambach, 41, of Richland, Quaker Alloy Co.’s former chief financial officer, and Joseph Stewart, 34, of Holland, the company’s human resources manager, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Lambach paid Stewart between $220,000 and $230,000 in bonuses as a “bribe” to keep quiet about false financial reports being sent to Atchison Casting Corp., of Atchison, Kan., Quaker’s parent company, Assistant U.S. Atty. Gordon Zubrod said.

Prosecutors agreed to drop 11 other counts.

Lambach, who resigned in October 2000, paid himself between $900,000 and $1 million in bonuses while Quaker steadily lost money, Zubrod said.

Lambach and Stewart each face a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.