re: OLOL Foundation President John Paul Funes terminated amidst criminal allegations

I think the reason you're getting some shite is that your theory is kind of illogical. Why would Funes solicit donations and then embezzle the funds to pay players? Wouldn't it just be simpler for a unscrupulous booster to just give the money directly to a player or a bagman for the "elites" to distribute to the players? Is your premise that the elites are only willing to bribe players if they can get a tax deduction by running the donation/bribe through the OLOL Foundation? Are the nuns in on this scheme? That sounds sort of far fetched to me.

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Eta: It's well known that rich people and big donors/boosters don't pay for players. That's too conspicuous. Middle-income earners ($100-350k) who are out of the public eye do it

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Then you truly do not understand the bagman. Funes is not out of the total public eye. The group of them would never let him in the club because of the risk.

Just a quick look at the book Funes literally tripled the size of the OLOL Foundation

Good point Golfer. So I assume every Non-Profit in Baton Rouge tripled during that time period. Because we all know that a rising tide raises all boats.

If other foundations were not growing as much, that could have been the source of Haters that wanted to take down OLOL, Funes and LSU Football.

I obviously didn’t know much about this entire thing. I’m not a Baton Rouge insider at all. But I have been around college football programs at a few SEC campuses.
I’ve just read this entire thread.
The hypothesis that this guy was a bagman for LSU athletes is ridiculous for a number of reasons and I’m not buying it at all.
First, no one is going to risk decades in prison for a football program. And guys like Shaq would know if that’s what he’s doing. I don’t think he and others would hitch their wagon to a guy they knew wasn’t on the up and up.
If this guy is as well connected in the community as he seems, others wouldn’t either. Big business guys know better than to allow that to be an integral part of the community.
Funes apparently comes from a well-connected highly successful family. Sure he makes good money compared to most. But that’s all relative. When others in your circle are eclipsing your earnings, it is human nature to want more for yourself.
So, he’s incredibly successful at raising funds for the sisters. And he starts thinking all the good he’s doing but he wants a little more than what they’re giving. So he takes a little along the way that he doesn’t think will be missed. He gets away with it for a while and gets sloppy. Maybe he got too greedy.
Starting out it was just a little here and there. But it started adding up.
Someone noticed.
And he allowed the auditors to come in for two reasons. One, he had no choice. Suspicion would have exploded if he had not. Two, he thought he was maybe smart enough to fool them... he had so far... and that’s how the criminal mind works. But deep down he was worried as hell. Then they asked the right questions and he buckled because he knew the gig was up.
The whole story is really simple and they age-old tale of greed getting the best of what was likely a good man. Deep down he knows this and there is still enough good in him to propel him to seek redemption. So he confesses his sin.
Temptation and envy combined to push hi to take a little and he got away with it so he did it again. And again. And then came the downfall.
It’s a sad tale. But peddling a conspiracy theory on a message board might entertain you for a while. After all, you don’t know this guy and the very real human tragedy that is playing out behind closed doors. But in the end you should get off your high horse Coach Geaux. Because the sin your committing by peddling your shite for pure entertainment is no better than his was, even if the consequences are not as apparent to you.

This has the makings of an episode of American Greed

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Good point Golfer. So I assume every Non-Profit in Baton Rouge tripled during that time period. Because we all know that a rising tide raises all boats.

If other foundations were not growing as much, that could have been the source of Haters that wanted to take down OLOL, Funes and LSU Football.

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Yeah...that's not how it works.

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We haven't had double digit in any decade since 1980. The biggest jump since then was from 1990 to 2000 when state population grew 5.9 percent.

Since 1920 through 1980 the state population grew double digits in each decade with the biggest decade being 1950-1960 at 21+ per cent.

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I'm not talking about population growth.

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There should be a correlation between population growth and economic growth wouldn't you think? We didn't lose a Congressman because the economy was good.

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I'm talking about at the highest-levels of wealth in Baton Rouge, there have been significant gains in the last 10-15 years. The ones that give millions to these programs/projects...not the ones that buy $100 tickets for the Lexus drawing.

The major industrial projects from Mobile to Corpus Christi have significant roots in BR from Turner, Performance, Cajun, MMR, etc.

Gotcha... thx