A former University of Colorado professor accused of creating a company to sell marked-up lab equipment to the Boulder campus has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft.
The Daily Camera reports 45-year-old Donald Cooper entered his plea Friday and was given a six-month deferred sentence. Two felony theft counts were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
Prosecutors say Cooper created Boulder Science Resource to buy lasers and other lab equipment that he marked up 300 percent and then resold to his university laboratory. CU paid the company $97,554 between Jan. 1, 2009, and April 30, 2013, and the school estimates Cooper's markups cost the university $65,036.
Cooper, who resigned in July 2014, was the director of the molecular neurogenetics and optophysiology laboratory in CU's Institute for Behavioral Genetics, where he was a tenured associate professor.
