SoonerMom2
5/26/2010, 06:38 PM
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=ap-kansas-ticketprobe
Excerpts: The school said the findings, contained in a report done by a Wichita law firm, have been sent to federal investigators already looking into allegations of wrongdoing in the athletics department and the school’s athletics fundraising arm, the Williams Educational Fund.
The investigation said five Kansas athletics staffers and a consultant—all of them no longer employed by the school—sold or used at least 17,609 men’s basketball tickets, 2,181 football tickets and a number of parking passes and other passes for personal purposes. The report showed over $887,000 in basketball tickets and more than $122,000 worth of football tickets were involved.
And it may be higher than that.
Because investigators did not have subpoena power, the amounts could climb as high as $3 million once the federal probe is complete, according to Jack Focht, attorney for Foulston Siefkin. He said it’s also possible the scam could have started much earlier since accurate records were only kept back to 2005.
(snip)
Ben Kirtland, the school’s associate athletic director of development, told investigators that Jones “was always on the lookout for development tickets.” But the report said Kirtland was also to blame, saying he helped create “an atmosphere similar to a worker in a candy store” when it came to work with the tickets.
“It was only after the federal authorities began to ask questions that Kirtland began to reveal facts he knew about Jones and expressed his belief that Jones was selling tickets and could be making as much as $75,000 to $100,000 a year in additional income,” the report said. “Kirtland finally admitted to his own culpability in the selling of tickets .. that he and Jones had not only violated the rules pertaining to the number of tickets available to donors, they had personally kept the money from selling tickets to them.”
NOTE: After this, the $3,000 alleged to have benefited Tiny Gallon is peanuts!
Excerpts: The school said the findings, contained in a report done by a Wichita law firm, have been sent to federal investigators already looking into allegations of wrongdoing in the athletics department and the school’s athletics fundraising arm, the Williams Educational Fund.
The investigation said five Kansas athletics staffers and a consultant—all of them no longer employed by the school—sold or used at least 17,609 men’s basketball tickets, 2,181 football tickets and a number of parking passes and other passes for personal purposes. The report showed over $887,000 in basketball tickets and more than $122,000 worth of football tickets were involved.
And it may be higher than that.
Because investigators did not have subpoena power, the amounts could climb as high as $3 million once the federal probe is complete, according to Jack Focht, attorney for Foulston Siefkin. He said it’s also possible the scam could have started much earlier since accurate records were only kept back to 2005.
(snip)
Ben Kirtland, the school’s associate athletic director of development, told investigators that Jones “was always on the lookout for development tickets.” But the report said Kirtland was also to blame, saying he helped create “an atmosphere similar to a worker in a candy store” when it came to work with the tickets.
“It was only after the federal authorities began to ask questions that Kirtland began to reveal facts he knew about Jones and expressed his belief that Jones was selling tickets and could be making as much as $75,000 to $100,000 a year in additional income,” the report said. “Kirtland finally admitted to his own culpability in the selling of tickets .. that he and Jones had not only violated the rules pertaining to the number of tickets available to donors, they had personally kept the money from selling tickets to them.”
NOTE: After this, the $3,000 alleged to have benefited Tiny Gallon is peanuts!