A former employee at the University of Maryland has been indicted in Prince George’s County on two counts of theft, but prosecutors say Lisa Schuetz, of Severn, made the major haul over several years.
“From 2016 to 2020, Schuetz abused her official position and purchasing authority by engaging in a scheme to defraud the University of Maryland at College Park in an amount exceeding $1.1 million,” State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said.
Schuetz is charged with one count of theft over $100,000 and one count of theft between $1,500 and $250,000. She’s due to make her first appearance in court on March 25.
Schuetz worked in various roles at the engineering school with the university for nearly two decades.
From 2012 to 2020, she was a director in the Mechanical Engineering department of the Engineering School, a position which gave her access and oversight of money. She left that position in 2020 and took a job at Johns Hopkins University as a grant and contracts analyst.
At the time of her indictment, she was still employed at Hopkins.
Prosecutors declined to get into specifics about what she’s accused of stealing. A statement from the university was also short on details, only noting that Schuetz “was employed at the University of Maryland from May 2001 to May 2020. The university thanks the officials who have investigated and prosecuted this case.”
“This is a very serious crime and I wanted to send a very strong message today that economic crimes are serious, they have serious consequences, our office takes them seriously, and we will pursue them zealously,” Braveboy said.
She also praised University of Maryland Police for conducting the investigation that led to the indictment.
“Economic crimes are some of the most complex crimes to investigate,” Braveboy said. “Because of their hard work, we were able to seek and earn an indictment from our grand jury.”
