The Investigators

DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ― We've linked several supporting documents within the body of this story.  You can find additional documentation linked at the bottom of the text.  Most documents are in Adobe .pdf format. 


Click here for several of UTSW's MasterCard credit card statements.
Click here for several of UTSW's VISA credit card statements.
Click here for a spreadsheet detailing the salaries of UTSW's top administrators.




Dr. Kern Wildenthal, the President of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, spent tens of thousands of donors' dollars on European trips, meals at five star restaurants, parties and expensive gifts, according to CBS 11's review of the state university's records.

CBS 11 uncovered more than $500,000 in expenses charged over the past two years to credit cards issued to Wildenthal and Cynthia Bassel, UTSW's Executive Vice President for External Relations.  Financial records obtained under the Public Information Act indicate that most of the expenses were paid for with money that was donated to the medical institution.

The Southwestern Medical Foundation, the university's fundraising arm, paid for the bulk of the credit card expenses including:

--$533 for a donor dinner (1), (2) at a five star restaurant at the Hotel Meurice in Paris, France, for Wildenthal, his wife Margaret, British opera singer Robert Lloyd and his spouse and Andre Dunstetter, a Parisian social figure with ties to Dallas.    

--$783 (1), (2), (3), (4) for Wildenthal's two most recent annual memberships in Mosimann's Dining Club, an exclusive restaurant in London.

--a $239 expense by Wildenthal at the Caviar House at London's Gatwick Airport in July of 2006.

--$160,000 worth of luxury wines.  Most of it was purchased from Acker Merrall & Condit, a premier wine dealer in New York City.  The firm is the nation's oldest wine merchant, dating to the 1820s. Acker also runs an online auction of vintage collectible wines.

--$459 for collectible Woodland Eagle dinnerware, including a platter and four mugs from Crow's Nest Trading Company, for two donors in April of 2007.

--$13,000 for tulip arrangements sent to donors for Valentine's Day over the past two years (1), (2). A note on the 2007 order instructs the florist to deliver a half-dozen of the arrangements to Wildenthal's home.

--$2029 for custom-made sugar cookies costing $2.12 each for a building dedication ceremony to honor former Texas Governor Bill Clements and his spouse, Rita Clements, a member of the UT Board of Regents.  The icing on each of the 500 Texas-shaped cookies featured the building's name, "The Bill and Rita Clements Advanced Medical Imaging Building".  Five hundred other cookies were designed to look like a business card with white icing featuring a photo of the building.    

--$167 at Petrossian in New York City.  Wildenthal bought a gift for an unidentified donor at the store (1), (2), which is an upscale food and gift merchant in New York City that has been selling caviar and other items since 1920.

--$275 (1), (2) at Paris wine shop Ryst Dupeyron. Wildenthal also bought a gift for an unidentified donor there.  The shop advertises personalized labels for its bottles of French wine.

--$122 at Fortnum and Mason in London.  Wildenthal bought a gift for an unidentified donor (1), (2) at the upscale department store, which is located near Piccadilly Circus and the Hotel Ritz.  The store's history dates to the 1700s and is favored by the Royal Family.



Nonprofit watchdog Rick Cohen, the former director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) in Washington, D.C., reviewed the state official's expenses at the request of CBS 11, "They strike me as indulgent. They strike me given the need for charity care in nonprofit hospitals as a misuse of resources. "

Cohen, who is now the national correspondent for Nonprofit Quarterly magazine, said that UT Southwestern is in effect using taxpayers' money because it pays for the expenses with tax deductible donations. "Once a donor gives money to a nonprofit institution it is not free money. It is not play money. It's the public's money. It is money that is forgone from the Treasury because it is given to a non-profit institution, and therefore the taxpayer is paying for that."

"In my experience, donors, particularly large donors don't need flowers and expensive gifts and bottles of $1000 wine for them to give a gift. That's fluff," says Pablo Eisenberg, a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Eisenberg, who is known as the "Conscience of Philanthropy," says expensive gifts are more often a reflection of the luxurious tastes of the fundraiser. "I don't think it's necessary for fundraising," he said. "But a lot of people do it and it's unfortunate because it's a bloody waste of money."



In one of the more unusual expense items found by CBS 11, Wildenthal spent more than $30,000 in donor's money to mail order gifts from the Velvet Crème Popcorn Company in Kansas. Wildenthal described his last two annual popcorn orders on expense reports as "seasonal donor recognition gifts".  (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)


Eisenberg shook his head in disbelief when shown the order forms for Velvet Crème Popcorn, "It's ridiculous. One has to laugh at it because it's so unnecessary."

The letter written by Wildenthal for his 2006 order also instructed the Velvet Crème Popcorn Company to enclose a gift card from himself and his wife and requested that, "the mailing labels should not indicate our company name."

"He's using tax exempt money, the institution's money, to send gifts and the institution is not even identified as the gift provider? The question becomes whose agenda is being followed." Cohen said. Wildenthal received approval from the UT System to make trips during 2006 and 2007 to England, France, Switzerland, and Italy which were paid for with money from donations. 

UT Southwestern paid for Wildenthal to make trips to England, France, Switzerland and Italy to conduct business for the Wendy and Emery Reves Foundation.  Wildenthal stated on travel requests and financial disclosure reports that he served as the Chairman of the Board and as a trustee of the foundation.  The late Wendy Reves was a donor to the university and was married to the late author Emery Reves, who was Winston Churchill's literary agent.  Until her death in March 2007, Mrs. Reves resided in La Pausa, a villa in the South of France partly made famous by its previous owner, fashion designer Coco Chanel. 

Cohen questioned why Wildenthal, who is paid $1,166, 582 annually, would not pay his own way or charge the Reves Foundation for his travel expenses, "The expenses start to add up to amounts of money that could have been used for much more productive purposes, number one, and number two, it expresses a value system of whose interests are being served by the UT Southwestern Medical Center."

Both Wildenthal and Bassel have charged thousands of dollars to the credit cards for memberships in social and civic organizations.  CBS 11's review found that donors' money from the Southwestern Medical Foundation was used to pay for Wildenthal's 2007 membership dues in the Dallas Symphony ($3500); Dallas Museum of Art ($5000); Nasher Sculpture Garden ($5000); British North American Committee ($6000); Dallas Women's Club ($850); and the SMU Town and Gown Club ($140).

Bassel, who is paid $344,600 annually, used money from the Southwestern Medical Foundation to pay for what she described on her 2007 credit card expense reports as a $1500 Board Member Annual Assessment for the Texas Ballet Theatre (1), (2); $100 for Dallas Junior League dues; and $1000 for an annual board member assessment for the Highland Park Education Foundation (1),(2).  

The HP Education Foundation is the fundraising organization for the Highland Park Independent School District, which is the state's richest public school system.  The HP Education Foundation says there are no annual board assessments for its board members.  It conducts an annual fundraising campaign called "Mad for Plaid".

Cohen says such expenses by nonprofits need more scrutiny by government regulators.  He said, "The practice of large institutions providing these various perks to their executives is something that the IRS ought to be looking into and state attorneys general ought to be looking into."


Both Cohen and Eisenberg are troubled by Wildenthal's credit card bills for frequent lunches at Rosita's Mexican Food Restaurant in Dallas.  Rosita's is located near the UT Southwestern campus and features a modestly priced menu.

On a recent Saturday, CBS 11's hidden camera found Wildenthal and some of the highest paid members of his executive staff dining there.  Wildenthal spent nearly $6,000 out of donations from the Southwestern Medical Foundation to pick up lunch checks at Rosita's over the past two years

On expense reports obtained under the Public Information Act, Wildenthal claimed the lunches at Rosita's were business meetings to "discuss/solve problems, accelerate decisions & plan actions". During CBS 11's undercover visit, the station's producers overheard lunch conversations about golf games and social plans.

"I would say that is totally inappropriate, unnecessary, doesn't further business and they can well afford it. That's another case I think of the rip off of the taxpayer. It shouldn't be allowed,"  Cohen said.

I approached Wildenthal when he returned to Rositas for lunch and asked, "Sir, why do you pay for your meals in here using Southwest Medical Foundation donations?"  Wildenthal replied that it was not an appropriate time to discuss his entertainment expenses and kept his head turned away from the camera in the doorway of the restaurant, "If you will call the news and publication department they can answer your questions."

UT Southwestern has declined CBS 11's repeated requests for interviews with Wildenthal, Bassel, and other university officials since our first investigative reports about the institution last November.

In a prepared statement, UTSW spokesman John Walls said, "All of the expenditures questioned by CBS 11 and its 'experts', without exception, are totally legal, ethical, appropriate and in conformance with UT Southwestern, UT System and State of Texas policies and regulations."  Click here to read UT Southwestern's entire statement as provided to CBS 11 News.


Biographies of experts quoted in this story, as provided by the men themselves: Pablo Eisenberg and Rick Cohen.If you have a story tip, you may email it to Robert at rsriggs@cbs.com.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

The Investigators: More Stories On UT Southwestern

• Memorial Fund Expenses Upset UTSW Donor's Family
• Memorial Fund Expenses Upset UTSW Donor's Family
• Report: UT Southwestern Spent $1000s On Wine
• Report: UT Southwestern Spent $125K On Luxury Wine
• EXCLUSIVE: UT Southwestern Offers Perks To VIPs