It took a Staten Island college five years to fire a business professor with a securities fraud conviction on his record, and now the school is being sued for it.
Edward Strafaci, a money manager who admitted in 2004 to overstating the value of a mutual fund he oversaw, says he disclosed the criminal conviction before he was hired to teach at Wagner College’s Nicolais School of Business in 2013.
By 2016 he had been promoted to a tenure track position and expecting a salary of $85,000, but in April the college allegedly abruptly refused to renew his contract, citing his criminal past.
New York state law prohibits refusing to hire someone based on a criminal record. When Strafaci threatened to sue, he claims in a Brooklyn federal court lawsuit the school offered him a measly adjunct spot which paid just $6,580.
Wagner declined to comment. A lawyer for Strafaci decried his client’s demotion.
“Do we really want a society where a conviction is a disability for life, which deprives people of work for which they’re qualified?” said attorney Seth Rosenberg, who called Strafaci a “beloved” faculty member.