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Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

[NYTimes]    A universal maxim.  Yet, one that Harvard University may have to defy in the very near future.

A federal judge in Boston has ruled that the school must provide testimony and produce documents that disclose financial records of Charles Spackman, an alumnus who is a generous benefactor of the school. The court seeks bank accounts, routing numbers, wire transfers and other interbank messages used by Mr. Spackman in his donations to the university.

The court issued the order because it’s conducting a search for the assets of this Hong Kong-based businessman on behalf of

an aggrieved investor of Spackman Group, his investment holding company. The investor is trying to collect on a judgment against Mr. Spackman involving a South Korean business deal.

The collection effort dates to the stock collapse in 2001 of Littauer Technologies Company, an infotech company. The Seoul High Court said that Mr. Spackman, a major investor in the company, fled South Korea amid claims of stock price manipulation, departing before the Korean authorities arrested a business partner.

The matter gets dicey for Harvard, if it’s determined that Spackman “diverted funds to Harvard when he should have been paying his judgment.” That would constitute fraudulent transfers, according to Douglas Kellner, a Manhattan lawyer who specializes in recovering hidden assets worldwide.

As a result, “They could sue Harvard to get the money back, and they’d be entitled to get it back if they can show that it was fraudulently transferred.”

Harvard has until 3/20/17 to turn over the banking information. The court also ordered Mr. Spackman’s daughter, Claire Spackman, a sophomore at Harvard, to testify and turn over records about her father’s assets.

While it’s not clear how much Mr. Spackman has donated to Harvard, his company website notes that Mr. Spackman sponsors a scholarship fund for Asian students at Harvard, leads the Harvard-Asia Scholarship Council and has served as a co-chairman of reunion gifts for the class of 1994. That is the year Mr. Spackman - also known by his Korean name, Yoo Shin Choi - obtained an undergraduate degree in economics.