UCLA professor sued by attorney general
By Daniel Schonhaut
Sept. 9, 2009 10:12 a.m.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown has accused UCLA Professor Gerald D. Buckberg of diverting funds from his charitable foundation for personal benefit.
On Sept. 8, Brown filed a civil suit against Buckberg, a professor of heart and chest surgery, seeking $500,000 in misappropriated funds, $100,000 in civil penalties, and the permanent dissolution of Buckberg’s foundation, said Scott Gerber, a spokesman for the attorney general.
Buckberg was out of town and could not be reached for immediate comment.
The investigation against Buckberg and five of his associates goes back to 2007, and was opened after UCLA and the UC Board of Regents provided evidence against Buckberg and requested a lawsuit be filed by the attorney general, said Phil Hampton, a UCLA spokesman.
While engaged in a lawsuit against Buckberg from 2003 to 2006, UCLA and the Board of Regents discovered that Buckberg had donated $1 million to the university through his foundation to endow a chair that he expected to be personally named to, Hampton said in a statement.
Buckberg founded the L.B. Research Foundation in 1997 to assist individuals with physical and mental disabilities, according to a statement from the attorney general.
With reports from Carolyn McGough, Samantha Masunaga and Samantha Schaefer, Bruin senior staff.
