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Former LSU Health chancellor spent charity funds on lavish trips, dinners, liquor, gifts

No one at the foundation ever objected to reimbursing Larry Hollier, even when he didn’t provide detailed receipts.

David Hammer / WWL Louisiana Investigator, Joseph Cranney/ Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate

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Published: 6:59 PM CDT August 12, 2022
Updated: 2:51 PM CDT August 13, 2022

While chancellor of LSU Health in New Orleans, Larry Hollier used a special account to buy wedding gifts, liquor, lavish dinners and travel for himself and his wife that included luxury hotel stays, limousines and first-class flights, records show.

Though his annual pay was above $1 million — more than almost every LSU employee — Hollier had tens of thousands of dollars in expenses reimbursed each year by the LSU Health Foundation New Orleans, a university-affiliated nonprofit that acts as the medical school’s fundraising arm.

Hollier stepped down as chancellor last fall after LSU auditors said Hollier tried to sidestep university policies while authorizing pay hikes for his inner circle, among other allegations. But that report did not address his expenditure of foundation money that, while private, is collected to serve the medical school’s public purpose.

Hollier’s foundation account also had far fewer controls.

No one at the foundation ever objected to reimbursing Hollier, even when he didn’t provide detailed receipts or explain how the spending was helping to fulfill the nonprofit’s mission, records show.

In many instances, there’s no indication that anyone at LSU or the foundation reviewed his spending at all, even though it appears similar to foundation expenses charged by another LSU official that created controversy more than a decade ago.

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