From one indictment to another, we head over to Arizona where former Fiesta Bowl Chief Operating Officer Natalie Wisneski is facing charges of filing false income tax returns for the bowl game, the Associated Press reports.
Wisneski resigned from her position in March shortly after Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker was fired in the wake of an internal investigation of alleged campaign contribution violations and other financial misconduct. Now, she’s facing federal campaign finance and conspiracy charges on allegations that she solicited contributions from bowl employees for political candidates on the local, state and federal level and arranged for the bowl to repay them holy freaking hell.
The investigation of the Fiesta Bowl under Junker is still ongoing, but the bowl did manage to keep its BCS status with no further punishment beyond a $1 million fine (or, the equivalent a three-day weekend in Vegas filled with strippers, golf outings and rare-game hunting for bowl CEO’s) and one-year’s probation.
A 276-page report by the bowl makes claims of an “apparent scheme” to reimburse bowl employees by over $46,000 for their contributions to politicians. The report also found “an apparent conspiracy to conceal the reimbursement scheme from the bowl’s Board of Directors and state officials.”
The bowl has since asked politicians who received contributions to return the valued amount, to which some have replied “get lost.”