STrib: FBI investigating possible fraud in University of Minnesota ticket office

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I know there is more to the story that hasn't been published, but I'm still trying to figure out who was profiting from this scam, assuming it was a scam.

So, as I understand it, someone in the ticket office was marking tickets as officially unsold, but those tickets were in fact getting out to various ticket outlets and being sold for games. What was the point? Were funds being diverted? Were these tickets being sold under the table? Any thoughts - insights?
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I know there is more to the story that hasn't been published, but I'm still trying to figure out who was profiting from this scam, assuming it was a scam.

So, as I understand it, someone in the ticket office was marking tickets as officially unsold, but those tickets were in fact getting out to various ticket outlets and being sold for games. What was the point? Were funds being diverted? Were these tickets being sold under the table? Any thoughts - insights?
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The FBI wouldn't have jurisdiction unless a large amount of money was involved.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
I know there is more to the story that hasn't been published, but I'm still trying to figure out who was profiting from this scam, assuming it was a scam.

So, as I understand it, someone in the ticket office was marking tickets as officially unsold, but those tickets were in fact getting out to various ticket outlets and being sold for games. What was the point? Were funds being diverted? Were these tickets being sold under the table? Any thoughts - insights?
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I would guess that there was some kind of kickback/payment to an employee to hold those tickets for the 3rd party ticket folks. But I have no idea.
 


Pompous Elitist said:
Hmm, clearly a pattern of irresponsibility and disregard for rules. This is the best candidate for a management position, after background searches? I recently had an interesting conversation with a casino executive and I recall their hiring criteria for people around money are extremely stringent. Any pattern of character deficits are a big red flag. Yes, even casinos like honest, responsible employees...

"Brent Holck's criminal record shows he has more than 40 traffic violations, mostly parking tickets and expired tags. Regents Board Chair Dean Johnson called it, "quite disturbing that a U of M employee would have such a record and no one would be aware.""

http://kstp.com/news/university-of-...tion-criminal-activity-ticket-office/4502401/
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Good lord. More than forty???? Impressive.
 

bizzle22 said:
Good lord. More than forty???? Impressive.
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In his defense, he is parking at the U of M. They're bloodhounds when it comes to parking tickets. I once got 3 in one day back in 2000.
 



FireDaveLee said:
In his defense, he is parking at the U of M. They're bloodhounds when it comes to parking tickets. I once got 3 in one day back in 2000.
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+1. Only had a car on campus a couple years, didn't drive it most days, and still had over 20 parking tickets.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 



Pretty serious if this case reaches the FBI threshold and involves jail time potentially.
 



Ski U Master said:
I would guess that there was some kind of kickback/payment to an employee to hold those tickets for the 3rd party ticket folks. But I have no idea.
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I believe that your hunch may be correct. Likely involved commerce over state lines and ultimately wire fraud... I believe the Feds oversee that.
 


If it is a tickets to ticket broker investigation it certainly won't be the first. Some ticket brokers have already paid millions of dollars in penalties for illegal software to get tickets. There are also investigations going on involving employees siphoning-off tickets to brokers.
 



I have purchased additional football tickets through the U and specifically Brent. The U would has tickets they hold onto for game day visitors (recruits, parents, etc.), in some cases they are seats the U deemed to be "obstructed" which would be the last to be sold or given away on game day. A couple of these were near where I used to have 2 season tickets so I called U and was able to purchase the tickets as needed.

I am guessing since those tickets were in the comp section, which the U wasn't expecting to make money on, he found (or thought he found) a way to pocket money from selling those. I always received a receipt from the tickets so it's possible my hunch is wrong.
 


Ron Johnson Super Fan said:
I have a hard time thinking brokers are involved given what would seem to be a pretty weak secondary market for Gopher tickets.
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Is it really a weak market or a depressed market because of large numbers of stolen tickets?
 

Tim Riggins said:
I have purchased additional football tickets through the U and specifically Brent. The U would has tickets they hold onto for game day visitors (recruits, parents, etc.), in some cases they are seats the U deemed to be "obstructed" which would be the last to be sold or given away on game day. A couple of these were near where I used to have 2 season tickets so I called U and was able to purchase the tickets as needed.

I am guessing since those tickets were in the comp section, which the U wasn't expecting to make money on, he found (or thought he found) a way to pocket money from selling those. I always received a receipt from the tickets so it's possible my hunch is wrong.
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Setting up your defense ahead of time I see....
 

Ron Johnson Super Fan said:
I have a hard time thinking brokers are involved given what would seem to be a pretty weak secondary market for Gopher tickets.
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Depends on if they're getting them for market value or not.

Even if it is low, if they can get them below market value... profit is profit.
 




Ron Johnson Super Fan said:
I hear you. Profit is profit but personally I'm not risking a federal investigation for chump change.
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FTR - how much profit would you require to risk federal investigation?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


My guess is comp tickets were being sold, and the money was pocketed. Very easy to do, since tickets at the gate a lot of times are already printed out. So the transaction may not tie the credit card to the actual seats, even easier if tickets are bought in cash. Keep track of this and take the cash amount out and pocket it at the end of the day. Could easily make $500+ each game without anyone noticing. Very dumb move, but possible. Could also be pretty easy to get over $100k over 5+ years.
 


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