Former Fiesta Bowl Official Pleads Guilty Over Campaign Contributions

John Junker, the former top executive of the Fiesta Bowl, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony charge over allegations stemming from a political donations scandal.

Junker entered his plea over soliciting political contributions from Fiesta Bowl employees. The bowl later reimbursed employees for about $48,000 over a nine-year period.

Now that John Junker’s agreed to a felony plea deal in the great Fiesta Bowl scandal, the rest of the bowl’s committee can get back to partying, right? Fiesta! Forever!

↵

A former Fiesta Bowl officer has been indicted for making campaign contributions in someone else’s name and filing false tax returns, among other counts announced Wednesday by the U.S. attorney’s office.

Natalie Wisneski, the former chief operating officer of the Fiesta Bowl, was also indicted by a federal grand jury for causing false statements to be made to the Federal Elections Commission and for conspiracy.

The Fiesta Bowl barely made it out of the scandal caused by former CEO John Junker with its BCS affiliation intact. However, some Arizona politicians who received free trips or game tickets from the tax-exempt group still have questions to answer for.

The bowl has sent a letter of its efforts to Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery. Montgomery is investigating whether or not some lawmakers illegally received game tickets or gifts.

The Fiesta Bowl announced on Wednesday its new executive director, University of Arizona President Robert Shelton. The previous leader, John Junker, was fired earlier in the year after it was discovered that he used bowl money in inappropriate manners, including political donations.

Shelton will have a tough job ahead of him when he attempts to rebuild the Fiesta Bowl’s reputation. Though it is still a BCS Bowl game, there will likely be a stigma on the bowl for some time to come after the corruption of the previous regime was uncovered.

Hopelessly corrupt Fiesta Bowl officials: “Heeeeey, politicians we cozied up to inappropriately throughout our tenure, can we have our ill-advised campaign contributions back?”

↵

The Fiesta Bowl has been dodging bullets left and right this offseason and has survived the storm relatively scot-free. On Wednesday, the NCAA granted the Fiesta Bowl’s license for 2012, though it did come with a probationary period. If bowl officials stay out of trouble and complete the requirements set forth, the Fiesta Bowl should live to fight another day.

The ruling, handed down for both the Fiesta and Insight Bowls, requires officials to meet with the NCAA Bowl Licensing Subcommittee in 2012 to present its progress report and detail the management changes put in place in the aftermath of this year’s investigation. While the committee was troubled by the allegations, it was comfortable enough with the plan Fiesta Bowl officials presented to re-license it for this coming season.

Fiesta Bowl organizers may not be the only ones getting slapped around in the legal system by the time the never-ending investigation into the game’s bottomless well of corruption wraps up. As much trouble as bowl officials are in for cozying up to local politicians in exchange for favors, it’s easy work to forget those receiving end of the cozying. No more, via the Associated Press:

The Arizona Republic points to two politicos (one Democrat, one Reublican) who appear to have had the most fingers in the Frito* pie: Tempe city councilman Ben Arredondo and state senator Russell Pearce. If their actions turn out to fall within the upper echelons of Arizona’s conflict-of-interest law, the two could potentially face felony charges.

In the wake of the BCS presidential oversight committee’s levying of a $1 million fine against the Fiesta Bowl Wednesday, the NCAA (whose licensing committee must still hand down a decision on the further fate of the game) released a statement reminding us that there’s still a chance for some actually punishing punishment to be meted out in this investigation (to say nothing of the scourge of the Insight Bowl, yet to be laid to rest!) Here’s NCAA Vice President of Communications Bob Williams:

The BCS task force actions regarding the Fiesta Bowl are serious and constructive steps in the right direction. The NCAA postseason bowl licensing subcommittee will review the task force report as it considers whether to reaffirm the Fiesta Bowl and Insight Bowl licenses for the coming season. The subcommittee is planning to meet next week and expects to make a decision in the near future.“Steps” is perhaps not the term we would use, considering how much money the Fiesta Bowl lost and could afford to lose. Shuffles in the right direction? Perhaps a strong lean?

As expected, the BCS presidential oversight committee has decided to sanction the Fiesta Bowl following a lengthy investigation into hilariously widespread corruption among the game’s organizers and connected politicians. And in even more predictable news, the bowl is getting off so easy that other BCS game organizations may well wonder whether they haven’t been a little light-handed with their own bribes.

The Fiesta Bowl will cough up a fine of $1 million, an ominous-sounding number that’s really about half of what UConn lost traveling to Arizona last January to get pantsed by Oklahoma on national television. Checks and balances in the form of additional administrators will also be installed, and overall everyone’s just promising real, real hard to make sure this never happens again. And ... that’s it. Ever feel like you’re in the wrong line of work, gentle readers?

Mark Emmert, NCAA president-about-town, announced this morning the establishment of something he’s calling the “NCAA Division I Bowl Licensing Task Force,” whose stated purpose is “to examine the purpose, criteria, process and oversight of the NCAA licensing procedures for football bowl games.” This, of course, is all a very elaborate way of telling bowl organizers to stop drawing attention to the fact that college football is an elaborate money-printing machine by taking outlandish bribes and then getting caught already, but it’s nice to have things Named With Capital Letters when you’re attempting to look serious.

Here’s the least-unserious bit of news, which ensures the as-yet imaginary West Hollywood Pinkberry Bowl will remain an unrealized dream for just a little while longer:

Fiesta Bowl officials have cleared one obstacle in the gauntlet they’re running to try and keep the now-legendarily corrupt game in the BCS rotation: Organizers met in Chicago over the weekend with a BCS task force to show penitence and apparently made a positive impression on the chair, Graham Spanier. A decision on the game’s future could be just a few weeks away, and the options sound ... well, like nothing much:

Spanier said there was a range of possibilities, including expulsion to staying in the BCS for the Fiesta Bowl. He also said there were “some things in between,” but he declined to elaborate. [...] It is unclear if the BCS has the legal authority to terminate the Fiesta Bowl’s contract, which runs for three more years, and whether there is a “morals clause” to punish the bowl. And it is unclear if the BCS can intervene and break the Fiesta Bowl’s contract with the Big 12 Conference.So by “cleared,” we really mean “Fiesta Bowl reps survived the meeting without bribing anybody, we think,” but there’s more tap-dancing to do: This ordeal is not to be confused with a second scheduled meeting with the NCAA licensing subcommittee in New Orleans at the end of the month. And you’re going to be shocked, just shocked at the conflicts of interest already emerging there:

Anyone expecting a resolution on the Fiesta Bowl investigation by the end of April will need to wait a few weeks. The NCAA’s Postseason Bowl Licensing Subcommittee has announced a delay in determining whether the Fiesta Bowl will continue as an NCAA-licensed bowl.

Fiesta Bowl committee members will travel to New Orleans to talk with the bowl licensing subcommittee during its April 27-28 review of bowl licenses. However, no decision will be announced then. Rather, one is expected to come toward the end of the spring.

So you’re a politician who accepted extravagant gifts and free travel from the Fiesta Bowl! Good on you. I mean that so sincerely. That sounds like one of the only fun parts of being a politician. Now, the Fiesta Bowl would like all their money back, please:

Lawmakers who took cross-country trips and accepted free game tickets at the Fiesta Bowl’s expense will receive invoices in the coming weeks asking them to fully reimburse the bowl for those costs.

Attorneys for the Fiesta Bowl confirmed Wednesday that they are conducting an investigation to determine the bowl’s total outlay on lawmaker gifts and travel so that it can seek reimbursement for those expenses.I’m not sure I get the “why” here. Are there takebacks in corruption of this level? If the politicians in question repay the bowl coffers, is Bill Hancock going to act like none of this ever happened? Is it even legal for the Fiesta Bowl to attempt this? Think there’s any legislator involved on the brink of retirement who’ll tell them no just to be a curmudgeon? Being a curmudgeon with impunity sounds like the other fun part of being a politician.

Because the initial report on Fiesta Bowl corruption wasn’t laughable enough on its own, here are two new tidbits to giggle at over your mid-morning latte break. Both come courtesy of the Arizona Republic, and both defy credulity in their own special ways.

Fiesta Bowl representatives are fixing to get called to the principal’s office in just a few short weeks, when they meet with the NCAA’s licensing subcommittee during the annual BCS meetings. Both sides are playing it cool, and there’s every reason to think a reasonable compromise can be worked out to save face in an era where both the BCS and the NCAA need to look clean and orderly, but the potential consequences could be dire for the bowl in the event of a hammer drop:

If the bowl organizers are hoping to keep a low profile between now and then and hope a Division I starting quarterback knocks over a bank or something to distract national attention, they might want to keep an eye on their political connections rapidly abandoning ship:

Yahoo! Sports’ Dan Wetzel, in case you had trouble parsing his book title, is out to get the BCS. This is fine by us, and it ought to be fine by the BCS administration, who’ve more than proved they can take care of themselves. Boy howdy, can they take care of themselves. But even the unflappable Bill Hancock has to be unnerved at this latest revelation by Wetzel: A member of the task force appointed to investigate the Fiesta Bowl finances has a history of accepting gifts from ... the Orange Bowl! Southern Miss AD Richard Giannini was in attendance at the Orange Bowl’s notorious Royal Caribbean junket, profiled last winter by PlayoffPAC:

Really, for entertainment value of equal bias, they should’ve just gone ahead and appointed Jerry Jones.

The Fiesta Bowl has fired CEO John Junker after a report by the Bowl’s oversight committee found evidence of lavish spending, political dealings well beyond the scope of a non-profit organization, and inappropriate political donations made by employees of the Fiesta Bowl who were then reimbursed with bogus bonus payments.

In a report released on the Fiesta Bowl’s website on Tuesday afternoon, the committee explained the firing was a result of three key instances of mismanagement that occurred during Junker’s tenure.

The Fiesta Bowl is reportedly under investigation for $38,000 worth of political contributions made by 14 bowl employees made since 2000. While there is nothing illegal about donating to politicians, the problem arises when (as is being alleged here) those who donated get reimbursed for their gifts.

Apart from that, the tax-exempt, ostensibly non-profit Fiesta Bowl has been under scrutiny for spending $4 million on lobbying to keep the game in the BCS rotation by hosting extravagant parties and shelling out gifts and freebies.