The Kansas City Star

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/14/2584927/with-another-guilty-plea-focus.html#

WICHITA | Two more guilty pleas this week helped fill in a picture of the University of Kansas ticket scandal, and it’s looking like a lot of other criminal conspiracies.

Using the kind of simple money laundering techniques common to the drug business, the conspiracy employed middlemen to sell millions of dollars worth of sports tickets to individuals and brokers, some in Kansas City and others in Oklahoma.

And the alleged conspirators, whose offices were within steps of each other in and around Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, found themselves in a near-ideal situation.

As described in federal court records and university reports, its members controlled both the commodity that fueled the scheme — basketball and football tickets — and the computer systems that could have exposed the scandal years earlier.

The latest insights into the case came Friday when Rodney D. Jones, the former assistant director in charge of the Williams Educational Fund, appeared in federal court and pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Tall and smartly dressed in a pinstripe business suit, Jones had to lean down to speak into a lectern microphone to answer questions from U.S. District Judge Wesley E. Brown.

“So I ask you, Rodney Dale Jones, are you guilty to count 1 in the indictment?” Brown asked.

“Yes, sir,” Jones replied.

His lawyer, Gerald M. Handley, said Jones was remorseful.

“He has accepted responsibility for his role in the diversion and sale of tickets from Kansas University,” Handley said in a statement. “He deeply regrets his involvement in this episode. He apologizes to the university for his conduct.”

The athletic department put Jones, 42, on leave in March and he resigned a month later. The Williams Fund — the money-raising arm of KU athletics — solicits contributions from boosters and manages their seat assignments at university basketball and football games.

A grand jury indicted Jones and four of his former co-workers in November, alleging that they stole about $2 million worth of tickets and earned up to $5 million from the scheme.

On Thursday, Kassie Liebsch also pleaded guilty, saying she had received $100,000 from the scheme.

Jones’ monetary take wasn’t clear after the hearing, but the overall numbers still were impressive.

Prosecutor Richard L. Hathaway said the investigation began when the Internal Revenue Service learned that some Kansas City ticket brokers were selling basketball season ticket packages, writing large checks to “cash” and then turning that cash over to a friend of Jones.

One ticket broker, whom Hathaway did not identify, generated about $975,000 in cash proceeds from the KU basketball tickets, he said.

Agents pulled trash from the home of Jones’ friend and found evidence of a large number of KU basketball tickets, numbered in sequence. The friend eventually identified Jones as the source of the tickets and said he believed that the tickets had been obtained legally.

Agents confronted Jones, who agreed to cooperate, and learned that he had converted more than 450 cash payments from the brokers into Western Union money orders of up to $500 each in order to avoid currency reporting requirements, Hathaway said.

Liebsch, in her plea, acknowledged that Jones showed her how to do the same thing.

Jones told agents that he had received tickets from then KU ticket director Charlette Blubaugh, then athletic department development chief Ben Kirtland and Kassie Liebsch, then a systems analyst in the ticket department, Hathaway said.

Jones said he would split proceeds from the sale of the tickets with Kirtland and Liebsch.

Kirtland, Blubaugh and her husband, Thomas Blubaugh, also face charges in the case. Each has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial Feb. 15, although that date is subject to change.

Liebsch, who was promoted to head the ticket office after Blubaugh’s departure, pleaded guilty to her role in the scheme Thursday and, like Jones, agreed to share a $2 million forfeiture judgment with other defendants subsequently convicted in the case.

In July, Jason Jeffries, former assistant director of ticket operations, and Brandon W. Simmons, former assistant athletic director for sales and marketing, pleaded guilty to concealing and not reporting the theft of sports tickets at the school.

Although some Kansas City ticket brokers have confirmed to The Kansas City Star that they spoke with federal agents, none has been charged.

Everybody who has pleaded guilty thus far has agreed to cooperate with authorities in prosecuting the remaining defendants. That’s another standard feature of criminal conspiracies and how they splinter.

The scramble began months ago.

When the case began to unravel in March 2010, according to an internal university report, Kirtland reported to university officials that Jones had discussed trying to pin the whole scandal on Liebsch.

“In Kirtland’s words, Jones wanted to ‘throw Kassie Liebsch …under the bus,’ ” according to the report. “Jones wanted Kirtland to agree to say, ‘Liebsch misused the tickets and took the tickets herself.’ ”

But as the guilty pleas this week have demonstrated, that blame continues to spread.