Former CUNY Bursar Steals Thousands, Shocks Students

Late last month, a friend gave Peter Gjini some very surprising news: a former bursar of CCNY, Joseph Boselli, had stolen thousands of dollars of funds intended for students over a five-year period without anyone finding out. “I felt really surprised,” said Gjini, an architecture student who plays on the men’s soccer team. “I was mainly shocked that someone could be stealing so much money for so long, especially at such a big and historic school like CCNY. I was also surprised that he had a big position at the school which deals with money, and no one caught on earlier.”

Many others were also surprised by the news that Boselli, 58, a former bursar for The City College of New York has been arraigned for multiple felony charges including grand larceny. He stole nearly $500,000 in checks that were meant for students to pay for tuition or receive refunds. Instead, he spent the money on his own personal luxuries like multiple vacations in the year, hotels, and designer items. Boselli would often forge signatures and address checks to himself and lie to students when he would get questioned about missing payments. The thefts occurred between 2012 and 2017. Boselli was ultimately fired for his theft in October of 2019.

As a bursar for the college, Boselli was in charge of supervising and analyzing all tuition collected from the college including checks sent from The City College Fund which are meant to go to students. He was also responsible for helping students pay off their accounts and keep track of payments, which was really annoying to Nicole Bayron, 23, a recent CUNY graduate who worked full time to pay for her tuition at Hunter. “I was mainly shocked that someone could be stealing so much money for so long,” says Bayron. “I’ve never heard anything this crazy happening at CUNY.”

CUNY alumni like Medina Cura, a Hunter College economics graduate of 2018, are now concerned about whether they are missing any checks themselves.  “Financial aid always helped me, but there were some mishaps when dealing with it. I now wonder if this went on at Hunter too,” she says. “I hope everyone from CCNY gets their rightfully owed money sent to them.”

CCNY’s president Vince Boudreau says the college is now working with law enforcement to identify any students who may have been adversely affected by the alleged criminal behavior. He urges students who may have been harmed to reach out. “If any student believes that they may have been adversely affected by the alleged actions associated with the arrest of Mr. Boselli, please send an email to BursarClaims@ccny.cuny.edu,” President Boudreau said in a statement emailed to the CCNY community. “We will make sure to document your particular situation for appropriate follow-up with law enforcement agencies.”