Police are looking into unauthorized use of Eastern Michigan University faculty union credit cards to make personal purchases.

The cards were used for purchases such as paying for Netflix, buying clothes at Nordstrom and at clothing stores in San Diego, New York and Minnesota.

Ypsilanti police have forwarded their investigation to the Washtenaw County prosecutor for possible charges.

The issues were discovered during an audit following a switch in union officials.

“As elected leaders representing more than 650 faculty members at Eastern Michigan University, we believe responsible stewardship of union finances is one of our most important responsibilities," a statement from President Judith Kullberg and Vice President Charles Cunningham said. "The dues dollars paid by our members can be used only for authorized union expenditures, with full transparency and disclosure."

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In fall 2016, a completely new union leadership took over following an election. That leadership started in January 2017.

More than a year later, the leadership hired the accounting firm of Collins, Buri & McConkey to audit the chapter's 2016-17 finances and spending.

“The policies and procedures of EMU-AAUP (American Association of University Professors) require an annual audit, but no audit had been conducted in many years," the union statement said. "Instead, the chapter relied on an annual review, which is a much less rigorous overview of financial records and procedures than a complete audit. Furthermore, the current Executive Committee had discovered upon taking office that many financial records were missing."

In July 2018, union leaders got the results of the audit. They shared it with union members at a special meeting on Aug. 30.

"The auditor found inconsistencies in spending categories across previous fiscal years and advised EMU-AAUP to closely examine a range of transactions," the union said.

Those problems included a "substantial" amount of money misappropriated from 2013 to 2016.

The union told members the money spent was in excess of $69,000.

"We can find no legitimate justification for these kinds of expenditures," the union said.

The credit card spending was done on an American Express card. There was a cover-up done to pay off the card, the union told its members in an internal email in mid-October.

"Over a four-year period, payments were made regularly to this Amex card with association funds, but the payments were recorded as 'Bank of Ann Arbor' in the association’s ledger," the union told its members. "There is no record of reimbursement to the association for these payments."

The union reported the issues to the police.

“EMU-AAUP is creating new, rigorous internal financial controls to prevent any financial malfeasance," the union's statement said.

EMU-AAUP represents more than 650 faculty members at Eastern Michigan University.

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj