Prosecutors: College of DuPage employee stole $200K from campus radio station

A former longtime College of DuPage employee is charged with stealing more than $200,000 from the west suburban community college’s radio station.

John Valenta, 65, was an engineer at WDCB 90.9 FM for about 30 years, working on the college’s campus in Glen Ellyn, according to the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office.

In October 2013, an internal audit found “an abnormally large number” of costly invoices for Broadcast Technologies, a company that Valenta owned, authorities said.

Many of the invoices were for repairs to the station’s radio transmitter, which was Valenta’s responsibility, authorities said.

Prosecutors claim the fraudulent invoices went back to June 2006, and the college ultimately paid Valenta’s company $200,000 for labor and parts that were never delivered.

“The allegations in this case clearly illustrate the concept of simple greed,” State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a prepared statement. “The defendant had a good job for more than two decades before he allegedly decided to illegally supplement his income at the expense of the College of DuPage.”

Valenta, of the 1700 block of Lucky Debonair Court in Wheaton, was charged with felony theft and ordered held on a $400,000 bond Thursday, the state’s attorney’s office said.

If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison, prosecutors said. Valenta will next appear in court March 2.