Schadenfreude

So there's this big-shot, right? Obviously I'm not going to mention any names, but anyone who has read any linguistics has probably heard of him. He's probably the most well known linguist in Australia.

He used to be at our university, but felt the university didn't worship his bigshotness sufficiently, so he took his ball (half our students, lots of money) and went home (i.e. to another university). Since then he has pissed off everyone imaginable, playing crazy power games and frequently sending nasty letters that make other academics cry. Everyone knows people who have had their careers and reputations deliberately damaged by this man.

News on the grapevine today is that the university has seized his hard drive, frozen his email account, banned him from campus, and is investigating where half a million dollars went, as well as several serious harassment complaints.

The interesting thing to find out will be what happens to a big-ass grant if the big-ass chief investigator ends up in prison.