Penn News fails to deliver refunds

Monk, a Wharton junior, said in April he would begin hand-delivering cashier's checks to on-campus subscribers within a week and would start mailing off-campus subscribers their refunds sometime the next week. Monk said at the time his family had helped him raise the nearly $10,000 he needed to pay for all the refunds. But Wharton senior Alyssa Rokito, one of two University students who filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office in February on behalf of over 120 other subscribers, said she has yet to receive her refund. She said several other students listed in the complaint also are still waiting for their checks. Monk did not return several phone messages left at his dormitory room last week. He has not spoken publicly since announcing the refund plan last month. Monk took over Penn News in early November and since Penn News is not incorporated, he is personally liable for the company's debts. He currently owes three newspaper companies more than $24,000 in overdue bills. Meanwhile, the state probe launched shortly after Rokito filed the complaint with the attorney general's Bureau of Consumer Protection has been delayed, according to Leonard Galloway, the agent conducting the Penn News investigation. Galloway, whose work on the case was slowed when Monk forced the postponement of four scheduled meetings to discuss Penn News' financial situation, said Monk has told him "absolutely nothing" about a refund plan. Due to the lack of progress, Galloway said he does not plan to move forward on the case until Deputy Attorney General John Kelly returns from a vacation May 22. But Galloway stressed the investigation will be delayed only temporarily and has not been abandoned altogether. While Monk remains entangled in Penn News' problems, the University has gone ahead with its plans to resume campus newspaper delivery in September through Penn Student Agencies. Deputy Vice Provost George Koval said negotiations with newspaper companies are underway and that students should receive a summer mailing detailing the subscription offer. Koval said the exact method of delivery has not yet been decided, but he added PSA will probably not deliver door-to-door due to the "astronomical" costs of hiring morning delivery workers.

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