BATON ROUGE- During his first initial appearance in federal court, Nathan Haymer revealed he intends to accept a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that will result in him pleading guilty to a federal charge.

Haymer entered a not guilty plea before Magistrate Judge Richard Bourgeois Tuesday as a formality. Once the plea agreement is finalized, another hearing will be scheduled before Judge Brian Jackson where Haymer will change his plea to guilty, according to what was discussed in the hearing.

Haymer was exposed by the WBRZ Investigative Unit two years ago after money turned up missing under his watch. An audit conducted by Southern University revealed nearly $300,000 was unaccounted for.

However, when federal prosecutors charged Haymer two weeks ago, he was charged with federal program theft for embezzling $30,000 in money. Prosecutors said the scheme involved fraudulent invoices that Haymer submitted to the school and received reimbursements for.

In 2018, Haymer told us, "I'm an honest person. I have integrity. Southern pays me well enough and there's no need for me to get kickbacks."

The court proceeding was held over ZOOM Tuesday. Haymer was ordered to surrender his passport. He faces up to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on the federal charge.

One of Haymer's attorneys, Karl Bernard, told WBRZ it could take up to ten days to have everything finalized.