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A student-run club attempted to submit a forged receipt to the Finance Board, said Student Union Treasurer Choon Woo Ha 07. Ha would not reveal the clubs name, the motivations behind the forgery, or the identity of the club leader responsible.

When I receive forms and process those forms, I check every single page thats attached, said Ha. I go through all the attachments thoroughly before I process anything.

Ha said that he noticed the receipt, which he described as being in the triple digits, lacked thorough information that professional receipts usually will have. Ha then confronted the club leader with his suspicions, which the leader admitted were correct.

This is the first time this has happened under my watch, said Ha. To my understanding, no such things, or at least no one has been able to catch anyone [who has tried this] during the previous year.

While Ha said that no Union Judiciary action would be pursued, the clubs bank account will be frozen for the duration of the semester. Ha added that the club would be able to request funds during the Early Marathon period in early April. When asked about the club leader's intentions regarding the forgery, Ha said “there were no bad intentions… they were not trying to get extra money.”

Club leaders responses have varied upon hearing of the forgery attempt. I think the F-Board should tell us which club it is, so we can de-charter them, said Robbie Schwartz 07, a Union senator and Co-Captain of the Ski Team.

This really hurts all the other clubs in the long run more than whatever the immediate impact is, said Kenny Fuentes 08, a long-time member of the Undergraduate Theatre Collective (UTC). Its going to make it a lot harder for the F-Board to trust clubs when they ask for more money when the vast majority of clubs at Brandeis are very honest.

While I think it's a serious issue and whoever is responsible should face the consequences, freezing the club's account for the rest of the semester without looking into the matter first seems somewhat drastic, said one club leader who wished to remain anonymous. The whole club shouldn't suffer for what may only be the actions of one person.

I just want to inform the community to be ethical in every respect, because you know stuff like forgery is a federal crime, Ha said. I take students money very seriously. Under my watch, even a single penny will be spent in the correct fashion. Thats what I was elected do.