{"id":281774,"date":"2026-09-08T23:06:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T23:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281774\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T23:06:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T23:06:24","slug":"temple-ends-55m-gift-as-donor-faces-federal-investigation-nbc10-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281774\/","title":{"rendered":"Temple ends $55M gift as donor faces federal investigation \u2013 NBC10 Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Temple University has terminated a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcphiladelphia.com\/news\/local\/temple-university-college-of-public-health-gets-largest-donation-ever-renamed-christopher-barnett\/4283403\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">record $55 million philanthropic commitment from Christopher M. Barnett<\/a> after he resigned from the university\u2019s Board of Trustees while facing a federal investigation into alleged health care fraud involving his company.<\/p>\n<p>Barnett and ABA Centers of America are among the subjects of a federal investigation into allegations that the company billed government and private health insurers for medically unnecessary autism therapy and manipulated records to maximize insurance reimbursements, according to an affidavit.  <\/p>\n<p>The government is also investigating potential health care fraud, wire fraud, false statements related to health care matters, conspiracy and money laundering offenses. No charges have been filed.<\/p>\n<p>Temple said in a letter to its community that Barnett \u201cstrenuously denies\u201d what the university described as \u201cserious allegations\u201d and intends to defend himself vigorously. The university said it learned of the allegations in recent days.<\/p>\n<p>The university also said Barnett is recovering from a life-threatening medical event.<\/p>\n<p>Temple and Barnett mutually agreed to end the $55 million philanthropic commitment announced in October 2025. The gift would have included naming Temple\u2019s College of Public Health and several other spaces and programs.<\/p>\n<p>No payments toward the commitment were yet due, Temple said. The gift had been the largest philanthropic commitment in the univeristy&#8217;s history: &#8220;After careful deliberation, we believe that moving forward with the gift would not be in the best interest of Temple.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Temple said the decision will not change its commitment to the College of Public Health.<\/p>\n<p>The university also added that fiscal year 2026 remains its most successful fundraising year, with $159 million raised even without Barnett\u2019s commitment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Temple University has terminated a record $55 million philanthropic commitment from Christopher M. Barnett after he resigned from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,10869],"class_list":["post-281774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-temple-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}