Ad
Featured
Former UNM president: Scotland golfing trip was 'audacious' fundraising plan
Published
Modified
A planned golfing trip to Scotland was an “audacious” scheme to woo large donors for the University of New Mexico athletics program, a former president said Wednesday at Paul Krebs embezzlement trial.
“It was a big undertaking,” former UNM president Bob Frank said on the third day of trial for Krebs, UNM’s former athletics director. “We had never done anything like that. It was a step to try to move us to a higher level.”
Prosecutors with the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office wrapped up their case on Wednesday. Closing arguments are expected Thursday.
Krebs had not decided Wednesday whether he will testify in his own defense, said his attorney, Paul Kennedy.
Krebs, 66, faces two counts of felony embezzlement for allegedly using public funds to help pay for the 2015 overseas trip that included himself, family members, former men’s basketball coach Craig Neal and three donors with no affiliation to the university.
At the close of the prosecution’s case, Kennedy asked 2nd Judicial District Judge Cindy Leos to toss out the charges, arguing that prosecutors had not shown that Krebs had committed the crime of embezzlement because he had not benefited financially.
Leos rejected the request, clearing the way for jurors to consider the charges.
“Shifting money from one UNM account to another” is not evidence of embezzlement, Kennedy argued. “The money was not converted to his own use.”
Frank, who served as UNM president from 2012 to 2017, testified Wednesday that the Scotland trip struck him as a bold plan when he and Krebs first discussed the venture. The intent was to attract more large donors to UNM athletics.
“I thought it was audacious,” Frank said of the plan. Only a few universities had attempted anything similar, he said. “It could have been very successful. I don’t think I gave him approval but I didn’t discourage him either.”
Ad
But the gambit also came with big risks.
David Harris, former UNM vice president of finance and administration, testified Wednesday that a key proponent of the trip was the late Turner Branch, a prominent Albuquerque attorney and major UNM donor.
“It was really the brainchild of Mr. Branch,” Harris said of the Scotland trip. But the plan went awry when Branch became seriously ill, forcing himself and several family members to withdraw from the trip.
Prosecutors allege that Krebs, in an effort to fill the trip, directed staff to waive the $8,100 cost of the “ground package” for each of three large donors who agreed to pay for their own airfare to Scotland. After the trip, he allegedly used $24,500 from UNM funds to cover the cost of the three donors.
Harris said those actions violated both UNM policy and the anti-donation clause of the New Mexico Constitution, which prohibits payment of public funds to private individuals.
“You can’t use public money under our policies to subsidize private entities,” Harris said. “I don’t think the constitution permits it.”
A UNM internal audit completed in 2018 also concluded that the payment violated the state’s constitution.
Prosecutors also allege Krebs illegally directed a payment of $13,625 from an athletic department “contingency fund” to reimburse the Lobo Club, the department’s nonprofit fundraising arm.
The Lobo Club had paid a $50,000 deposit to a travel agency to book arrangements at prestigious golfing destinations, including St. Andrew’s and Carnoustie in Scotland.
The travel agency was supposed to return the deposit in full, but because of the cancellations, the Lobo Club received only a portion of the deposit, leaving the nonprofit short more than $13,000, witnesses testified this week.
