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The Run of The Mill
The Casablanca Deal: Secret contracts and unexplained payments at the University of Greater Manchester
On a cold day in January, our reporters stumbled upon a strange story about Joseph Wheeler, a car marketing executive from Milton Keynes who had been granted extraordinary power at the University of Greater Manchester (formerly the University of Bolton), whose company had received £8 million in the past six financial years for performing marketing and brand management services, and who was accused of making racist remarks and threatening to sack people if they didn't bend to his will.
Then, the story became stranger. We uncovered evidence that Joseph Wheeler and another senior university executive, Paul Starkey, tried to pressure ECN, one of the university's biggest commercial partners, into transferring 40% of its revenue into a private company that Wheeler owned. That deal looked like an arrangement for kickbacks – a form of illicit payment in return for something – to be paid to Wheeler’s firm, and the circumstances in which it was signed suggest bribery laws may have been broken.
Private Eye has picked up our story, and MPs Phil Brickell and Neil O'Brien have raised our reporting to the Department for Education and in parliament. In today's episode, Mollie and Joshi reflect on the last month of reporting, and where the university goes next.
The University of Greater Manchester saga in full
16/08/2024: Our first story about the university. The university was planning to let 82 members of staff go, and was battling to change its name from the University of Bolton to the University of Greater Manchester.
06/02/2025: Over a dozen staff members accuse Joseph Wheeler of making racist remarks, and Wheeler is caught on tape saying: “At the end of the day, somebody from Nigeria looks exactly the same as somebody from Ghana.”
10/02/2025: The university announces that Joseph Wheeler had resigned.
15/02/2025: Our sources give us evidence that showed the university had misled us. Joseph Wheeler was still taking calls with staff members and his marketing agency, RSM, was still under contract with the university.
19/02/2025: Our latest exclusive. We uncover evidence that Joseph Wheeler and another senior university executive, Paul Starkey, tried to pressure a key university partner into diverting hundreds of thousands of pounds in tuition fees into a private company.
24/02/2025: The Office for Students, the university's audit committee and board of governors ignore our questions about the allegations. Phil Brickell MP writes to the Department for Education asking for an independent investigation into the university.
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