The academic chairman at the center of the long-running academic fraud at UNC-Chapel Hill is now cooperating with an investigation led by Kenneth Wainstein, according to his attorney.

“Dr. (Julius) Nyang’oro has given his full and complete cooperation to the investigation being conducted by the independent counsel,” said attorney Bill Thomas of Durham.

Nyang’oro faces a criminal fraud charge related to the scandal for accepting $12,000 in special summer pay for a 2011 class that didn’t meet. Thomas has said his client did not commit a crime and would fight the charge if the case went to trial.