An alleged political scam at the University of Maine is currently being investigated through the Office of Community Standards, Rights and Responsibilities. First-year business student, Mitchell Reichert, made waves at UMaine this past fall after selling scent diffusers that never shipped to their buyers. Even after disciplinary action, this did not stop his schemes, with multiple political groups on campus noting a scam afoot.
Maeve Durkee, President of the UMaine Progressives, spoke to the Maine Campus about her interactions with Reichert at the spring Student Involvement Fair. She said that he approached her table, offering to fundraise for her organization, citing large figures of money, tens of thousands, that he previously raised for the College Republicans through private donors.
“He said he had done fundraising for the College Republicans, which I think was later revealed to not be true,” said Durkee. President of the College Republicans, Payton Warren, confirmed with Maine Campus that they had declined offers for Reichert to fundraise for them.
In this conversation, Reichert told Durkee he is “Democrat leaning” when, just moments earlier, he told Turning Point USA (TPUSA) President Molly Curtis he is a “conservative Republican.” This was not the first time the College Progressives spoke with Reichert, with fourth-year political science student Haden Buzzell explaining their initial distrust weeks earlier.
“He contacted me about joining the group, but was very vague about everything…he was very obviously not, like, eager to join the group because of his, you know, ‘passion for progressivism’. It was pretty obvious from the start he had ulterior motives,” said Buzzell.
Both Buzzell and Durkee explained that, while rare, there were times when right-leaning individuals sat in on progressive groups to report them to the Department of Justice for terrorism watchdogs. This worry made the group flag Reichert after they found him on Campus Groups under the College Republicans. Reichert, however, had different motives than reporting on political groups — he wanted to work with them.
Following the Involvement Fair, members of the College Progressives and TPUSA compared notes about Reichert’s inconsistencies. Curtis explained that it seemed he was playing both sides of the table and that he was clearly fishing for some sort of scam.
“I think what he’s trying to do is, you know, get involved with some sort of fundraising scheme, where he then can act as a middleman and skim off the top of what the clubs receive.”
Curtis also reported that he spoke with a donor with $30,000 that would be willing to fundraise with TPUSA. Similar to the College Progressives, TPUSA had also previously flagged Reichert for suspicious activity. He had messaged member Sophia Pride, and, when she did not respond, showed up to a meeting looking for her. When Pride arrived, Reichert did not talk to her.
Curtis and Durkee sent a complaint the day of the involvement fair about Reichert’s activity to the university, in which James Psalidas, Director of Student Involvement, told them that they could ask him to leave if he came to another meeting. Psalidas later told the Maine Campus that the information he received is part of an “ongoing issue” and was not at liberty to speak about the “incident.”
This is not the first time Reichert has been involved in issues with the UMaine administration. The Maine Business School hosted a Shark Tank Project competition, in which freshman students were tasked with bringing ideas to a table of judges to win scholarship funds. Allegedly, he sold scent diffusers to students in the Memorial Union and told them it would be a prepayment. He told them they would receive the product later. They never did.
Director of Student Success and Recruitment at the Maine Business School, Julia Van Steenberghe, oversaw peer leaders who assisted students throughout this Shark Tank competition. For this event, students were grouped in teams. Van Steenberghe told Maine Campus that Reichert broke away from his team to pursue a different venture, which would become his scam.
“This behavior was immediately flagged by both the peer leader and the student’s group members. The situation was promptly escalated, with Student Life involved and the Dean notified right away. The student met with appropriate parties, but the outcomes of the meetings cannot be shared due to FERPA,” said Steenberghe.
The reputation Reichert has accrued in his short time at UMaine is not to be understated, with his inconsistencies painting a picture of him as an unreliable figure.
“He’s kind of a liar and doesn’t really stand for what he believes in,” Warren told Maine Campus. The College Republicans do not ask anyone to leave meetings, per their open-door policy, but Reichert is still flagged for ulterior motives.
Last Wednesday, Reichert showed up to the College Progressives meetings with two other students, supposedly as some sort of protection. Speaking with Buzzell, he claimed to have been contacting prominent Democratic politicians for a town hall, citing a close collaboration with former Maine state representative Diane Russell. Russell has not responded to attempts to confirm or deny this connection. Reichert also mentioned connections with Troy Jackson and Shenna Bellows. Jackson’s team was unaware of any relationship and Bellows has not confirmed or denied Reichert’s claims.
Regardless of his actions being under administrative review, his hustles have not stopped. Reichert continues his communications with political groups following consequence from the business school, leaving this freshman in a precarious situation. Trust is broken between him and student organizations and his reputation continues to corrode. Reichert has not responded to Maine Campus for comment.
