On September 1, 2021, when Dr. Vinod Menon, chair of the Physics Department at the City College of New York (CCNY), returned to his office in Harlem for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, he found a cardboard box in his office mail. Menon found the package contained $180,000 in $50 and $100 bills, bundled in paperSee Banknote paper. More bands.

The package had an unsigned letter from a former CCNY graduate in physics and mathematics who wished to remain anonymous. In the letter, the donor asked that the gift helps deserving physics and mathematics students “in need of financial support to continue their studies.”

The box weighed 2 kgs (4 pounds, 8 ounces) and arrived at CCNY on November 12, 2020, from Pensacola, Florida, by 2-day Priority Mail, at a rate of $90.80. The package had been sitting for months in CCNY’s central mailroom through the spring of 2021. “It’s crazy that it just sat in the mailroom, or even that it was sent by mail – the person trusted the system so much,” said Menon.

CashMoney in physical form such as banknotes and coins. More Gifts and Due Diligence

“I know a lot of academics, and I’ve never heard of anything like this. I didn’t know if the college accepted cash, so I didn’t know if they’d keep it,” Menon added. CCNY’s policies encourage donors to make gifts “easily by credit card, personal check, cashier’s check, or moneyFrom the Latin word moneta, nickname that was given by Romans to the goddess Juno because there was a minting workshop next to her temple. Money is any item that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular region, country or socio-economic context. Its onset dates back to the origins of humanity and its physical representation has taken on very varied forms until the appearance of metal coins. The banknote, a typical representati... More order […] using [the] online form or send via postal mail,” in a partial acknowledgement that people are donating less with the growth of cashless payments. This problem has worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I’ve never seen this kind of money in real life in cash form. I’ve never seen it except in movies, and so, yeah, I was shell shocked and I just did not know how to react,” Menon said. Immediately after opening the box, Menon called the Dean of Sciences.

CCNY belongs to the City University of New York (CUNY) system, the largest urban public university in the United States. CUNY officials began an inquiry into the origin of the funds. The money was “treated like evidence […] to see if it was possible that this was proceeds from criminal activity,” said Pat Morena, CCNY Department of Public Safety chief.

Despite the commonplace assumption that cash enables money laundering by obscuring its origins, the evidence in the box proved its legitimacy while maintaining the donor’s anonymity. The package’s return address did not lead to the donor. Based on information of the bands bundling the cash, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ Financial Crimes Unit found it had been withdrawn from several banks in Maryland in recent years and did not connect the gift to criminal activity.

After a month-long investigation, authorities told CUNY officials the donor’s identity “really was untraceable,” said Chief Morena. “Who gets $180,000 sent to them in currencyThe money used in a particular country at a particular time, like dollar, yen, euro, etc., consisting of banknotes and coins, that does not require endorsement as a medium of exchange. More, and the person who’s sending it is anonymous?” said Chief Morena.

A Cash Gift with a Big Impact

In its December 13, 2021 meeting, the Board of Trustees of CUNY unanimously approved a resolution accepting the cash gift.

• “I will admit that is absolutely astonishing, that $180,000 in cash in a box,” said William C. Thompson, chair of CUNY’s Board of Trustees.
• Asked whether it was CUNY’s first anonymous cash contribution to arrive in a box, CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez said, “Clearly in a box, I think it’s a first.”
• “I think we need to bronzeA reddish–coloured alloy of copper and tin with a special sound and high level of resistance to deformation; it sometimes incorporates also small amounts of other elements such as zinc and phosphorus. More that box […] and we have to put that in some kind of display case as to the most generous gift,” said board member Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez. “I just wanna acknowledge [CUNY officers] because they were like, we are not sending this back. We’re gonna do all the due diligence necessary. We gotta keep this money,” said Cortés-Vázquez.

The cash gift will fund two full-tuition scholarships each year for a decade, starting in the fall semester of 2022. “Seeing the money was a shock. Reading the letter really made me proud and happy to belong to this institution, which actually made a difference in that person’s life,” Menon said.

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