TOPEKA, Kan. — Five former employees at the University of Kansas were indicted Thursday morning on federal charges of conspiring to steal more than $2 million worth of tickets to KU events, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced.
Those charged were Thomas Ray Blubaugh, consultant to the KU ticket office; Charlette Faye Blubaugh, associate
athletic director in charge of ticket office at KU; Ben Kirtland, Associate Athletic Director of Development and supervisor of the Williams Educational Fund; Rodney Dale Jones, assistant athletic director In charge of the Williams Fund; Kassie Leibsch, systems analyst in the KU Athletics office.
Liebsch is the current director of ticket operations at KU.
The indictment alleges that in 2005, Charlette Blubaugh began stealing season tickets for KU events and gave tickets to Kirkland, Jones, Liebsch, Brendan Simmons and Jason Jeffries to sell. Those given the tickets made $3 million to $5 million from the sale of the tickets, according to the indictment.
The indictment states that Simmons and Jeffries have pleaded guilty to related federal offenses and are not named in this indictment.
The five named in the indictment violated university policies, the indictment states, which limits staff members to two complementary season tickets to football and
basketball. Those tickets were not to be transferred or sold.
The indictment said that to divert the tickets, the five entered false information into a computer system designed to prevent ticket theft, paid kickbacks to those not connected to the ticket office to sell tickets to individuals and ticket brokers, had checks written to third parties not in the ticket office, had ticket brokers writer checks that were converted to cash at the brokers’ banks and purchased money orders with cash amounts less than reporting requirements in an effort to avoid tracking and concealed the receipt of their outside income on NCAA required reports.
The indictment seeks a judgment of between $3 million and $5 million. If convicted, the five each face a maximum of 30 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine.
