Daniel E. Doyle Jr., executive director of the Institute for International Sport, was arraigned Friday morning in Superior court. Photo by Steve Szydlowski, The Providence Journal.
WPRO Newsroom and the Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – The founder of a nonprofit sports institute once housed at the University of Rhode Island has been indicted following an investigation into the organization's finances.
Attorney General Pete Kilmartin and Rhode Island State Police Colonel Steven O'Donnell announced Friday that Daniel Doyle, Jr., the founder of the Institute for International Sport, has been indicted on seven counts of embezzlement, one count of obtaining money under false pretenses, five counts of forgery, and five counts of filing a false document.
Doyle has been under investigation by state police for more than a year. Authorities launched their investigation after an audit found the institute couldn't account for how it spent most of a $575,000 legislative grant. Investigators learned that Doyle personally obtained over $1,000,000 in unauthorized salary increases, bonuses and personal expenses paid for by Institute funds.
"I'm very sorry to hear the sorry state of affairs that this originally very worthwhile enterprise seems to have ended up with," philanthropist Alan Shawn Feintsein, a major donor to the Institute, told WPRO Friday.
But, he added, "we knew there was something wrong quite a long time ago."
Feinstein said he would like to retreive things, like a set of Babe Ruth baseball cards, from inside the Institute building.
Feinstein, who helped open the Institute's URI location with a $1 million gift, said sometimes in philanthropy, you're mislead.
"You get up to bat and you're not going to hit a home run every time," he said.
Doyle's indictment was unsealed Friday following Doyle's arraignment. His bail was set at $100,000; he will appear in court again May 17.
WPRI-TV was first to report the indictment.
