Ex-UCLA Official Sentenced in Fraud

The former administrator of UCLA’s radiological services department has been sentenced to 33 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution.

James Campbell, 46, pleaded guilty in September to embezzling more than $500,000 from UCLA over the course of four years. Assistant U.S. Atty. Nathan J. Hochman said the sentence, handed down Thursday, “sends a strong deterrent message that justice will be swift and the punishment severe” for those who try to defraud public institutions.

Campbell’s attorney, Deputy Federal Public Defender Mary Kelly, said U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson’s sentence was too harsh.

After a two-year investigation, a federal grand jury indicted Campbell last year on 59 counts, including conspiracy, fraud and money laundering. Between 1990 and 1994, Campbell established two employment agencies that provided temporary help to the radiological services department, which does X-rays and other work for the UCLA Medical Center and--under a federal contract--for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Los Angeles.

Campbell, who was fired from UCLA in 1994, was accused of hiding his ties with the two agencies from UCLA, overbilling and rubber-stamping phony invoices. Several other people pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the scheme, authorities said.