DeKALB – Eight Northern Illinois University employees charged in connection with the “coffee fund” investigation have been placed on paid administrative leave, according to an NIU statement released Monday evening.

University officials announced the decision about a week after arrest warrants were issued for nine people in an NIU police investigation of the fund. The coffee fund, which NIU officials have said was used for retirement parties and other office expenses, allegedly was an off-the-books repository for proceeds from the sale of university-owned scrap metal and other materials.

Records from local scrap metal company DeKalb Iron and Metal Co. show the fund received more than $13,000 since 2005, although it apparently had existed long before that.