Kent State released Kenni Burns into 6-digit loans from Booster in accordance with the investigation report after the examination

Kent State dismissed the football coach Kenni Burns for reasons of examining and examining a six -figure loan, which he received from a university amplifier and seller as well as personal, improper or unfounded purchases on his school purchase card, according to a copy The athlete.

The school turned March 27th on vacation and fired it on Friday without a certain public ground. The athlete Burns received a letter of termination and the school examination in a public recording application and highlighted what went into the decision.

At the request of the state of Kent in February, the General Prosecutor’s Office hired the law firm of Vorys in order to examine a “growing list of concerns” in relation to burns, as is based on a memo from the law firm to the provisional General Counsel of the school on April 10th. The investigation has limited its focus on ethics problems and the law of Ohio.

According to the report, Burns received a loan of up to 100,000 US dollars from Michael Awad in 2023, a local restaurant owner who was honored by the school last year with the “Varsity K Person of the Year” award. The loan was said to be relocated in July 2023 towards the flood damage from Burns’ house. Burns paid 109,000 US dollars to a number of checks from October 2023 to December 2024.

The examination did not reveal any direct evidence of a continuous Pro -quo agreement between Burns and Awad, but found that the “highly questionable” transactions with a loan from university providers violate ethics rules, which were interpreted by the Ohio ethics commission.

“It is most likely that the preservation of large loans from coach Burns from a university provider – someone coach Burns, especially because of his coaching role at the KSU – violated the ethics rules as an Ethios Commission,” the report said. “The behavior of coach Burns against the justification of the ethics committee violated (1) rules that have been held by public employees from receiving” compensation “from someone as their employer; and (2) rules that prohibit conflicts of interest.”

The investigation states that Burns has brought recruits and their families in Awad’s restaurant for meals, and six -digit loans are “inherently in nature, which causes an appearance of inappropriateness”. In the memo it was also found that the repayments came when Burns was sued by a local bank over almost 24,000 US dollars in credit card debts. The local court gave a default judgment in favor of the bank in December and cleaned up the case a month later at the bank’s request. The report states that burns quoted the flood damage as the reason why he opened the bank account.

The lawyer of Burns, Lee Hutton III, said that the trainer had previously cleared his relationship with Awad by sports director Randale Richmond. Hutton also said that Burns repaid the loan with interest and that he was “very disappointed”, that neither he nor his client would have received the investigation report The athlete.

“There was no proper procedure,” said Hutton.

In the documents, 16,000 US dollars were also listed in questionable expenses that Burns created or authorized on his shopping card at the university, as determined in an audit in January. The expenses vary in nature and include unpregnant fees without papers, personal travel expenses, an unfounded 48.60 dollar bill in Urban Meyer’s Pint House and $ 2,240 for Custom Game Day shoes. His shopping card was suspended on October 1 because “the number of unfounded fees grew so large,” the investigation said.

Of the 16,000 US dollars, Burns reimbursed the school for more than $ 7,000 and provided documentation for the rest after the school official civil servants met at the end of January about the results of the audit.

According to the investigation, the University Financing employees kept Burns’ abuse of the map “beyond everything they had ever seen with another KSU employee”, but “more like a gross negligence than any kind of intentional theft”, since it ignored warnings and inquiries to justify purchases in 2023 and 2024.

Hutton said Burns received no proper training on the shopping card before the audit. The report states that Burns did not read the card manual or took part in training.

A footnote of the 13-page memos also found that the school was aware of the allegations of “Drinking in the workplace, improper treatment of employees, gambling and the like”, but these concerns were not part of the framework of the examination. However, a later footnote also explained: “The investigation did not discover any reasoned evidence of such a (gambling) agreement between (burns and awad) or any improper or excessive gambling through coaching burns.”

“If this is in the report, this is a very blatant and important contradiction that corresponds to the credibility of the results,” said Hutton, who refused to play all rumors about burns.

The memo also said that Kent State did not properly spread from January 2023 to November 2023. The school had the annual media fees of 50,000 US dollars because of “which was an unintentional mistake”. Kent State gave Burns a package payment.

Hutton said that that was “still poor” and that the problems beyond the media fees expanded.

“This was a recurring situation,” said Hutton.

Burns, who had four seasons, when he was released, should earn 495,000 US dollars in basic wages – plus the $ 50,000 in media fees.

He came to Kent State from a deputy job in Minnesota and went 1-23 in two seasons, including 0-12 last season. The golden flashes went to the division of the Football Bowl division during his term.

Hutton said Kent State offered Burns a settlement, but he rejected it.

(Photo: Matthew O’Haren / Imagn Pictures)