University of Minnesota Athletics Director Sentenced for Wire Fraud

A former assistant athletics director at the University of Minnesota will spend 21 months in federal prison for stealing $361,336, according to a Duluth News Tribune report.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said 37-year-old Brent Holck was sentenced by a federal court in Minneapolis on Monday for committing wire fraud from April 2012 to January 2017.

The quantum of sentence was announced four months after Holck admitted to canceling football, men’s hockey and basketball tickets after they’d taken place and routing the refunded amount into his personal bank accounts, according to the Star Tribune.

The filings also accused him of issuing tickets and parking passes to his close associates, who in turn sold them and gave a major share to him.

“This was not an example of a fleeting lapse of judgment,” John Kokkinen, assistant U.S. attorney said. “This was repeated conduct over the course of five years.

The university fired Holck in February 2017, after the Office of Internal Audit found variations in the ticketing records. The court gave him a reduced sentence of 33 to 41 months for his cooperation and conduct. Holck has undergone treatment for gambling addiction and deposited an initial $100,000 restitution check as a part of the amount he siphoned.

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