BOSTON (AP) - The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a federal judge to order Harvard University and two men accused of mismanaging an economic reform program in Russia to repay the government $102 million.
The government sued two years ago, alleging that staff of the now-defunct Harvard Institute for International Development had invested in companies directly affected by advice they gave the Russian government as part of a U.S.-backed program to help Russia's transition to capitalism.
After settlement talks broke down, the Justice Department filed papers in federal court Wednesday asking U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock to decide the case without going to trial. Harvard lawyers also have requested a quick ruling.
The allegations focus on Andrei Shleifer, an economics professor at Harvard, and Jonathan Hay, Shleifer's former deputy at the Harvard Institute for International Development.
Federal prosecutors say the two men ignored signed agreements and basic ethics when they invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in companies affected by the advice they were giving. The Harvard institute had received $40 million in federal funds to advise Russia on privatization, capital markets and legal reform after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Lawyers for Harvard say personal investments by the institute's staff did not violate the university's agreements with the U.S. government.
Harvard spokesman Joe Wrinn said the university views the government's allegations ``as overreaching and without legal merit.''
Both Shleifer and Hay were removed from the Russia program in 1997, and the institute was disbanded in 2000.
According to court documents, Shleifer in 1994 invested about $464,000 in Russian oil companies, equities, and government securities. Hay allegedly invested $20,000 in a mutual fund that invested in Russian equities, and also wrote Shleifer a check for $66,000 for other Russian investments. Hay was dismissed by the school.