An NYU Hall Bears Name Of a Felon

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The New York Sun

Through the glass windows of a New York University lecture hall on West 4th Street, passers-by can see the name of a convicted felon emblazoned in bold silver letters, an awkward reminder of an incident two years ago in which a bookish senior was arrested for swindling several businessmen out of millions of dollars in a hedge fund scam.

The Yalincak Family Foundation Lecture Hall still bears the name of Hakan Yalincak, more than a year after he was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison on charges of bank and wire fraud. Plans to remove the letters from the building have stalled; university officials say unbolting the plaques would leave unattractive holes in the wood paneling.

“We wanted to remove it in a way that did the least to mar an otherwise lovely public space,” a spokesman for the university, John Beckman, said. Simply taking out the letters would leave gaping holes in the wall that would remind the community of the scandal, Mr. Beckman said. Contractors have said it would be difficult to find matching wood if the panels were replaced altogether, he said.

The Yalincak family donated $1.25 million to NYU in 2004, with the promise of an additional $20 million. When Yalincak was convicted of posing as a wealthy Turkish hedge fund manager and his mother was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy in the wire fraud scheme, the university returned the bulk of the money that was procured by illegal means.

“The school has enough money to fix the wall,” a student at the College of Arts and Sciences, Patrick Treadwell, said.

“That doesn’t sound like a good argument,” he said of Mr. Beckman’s explanation.

A number of NYU students said they were unfamiliar with the scandal but that leaving the name on the building seemed illogical given that the university returned the money, a student newspaper, the Washington Square News, reported.


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