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Georgia proves once again to be a backwater state controlled by the good ol’ boy network. As many have long speculated, we now have an utterly  unqualified Attorney General named Chris Carr and Kennesaw State University has an equally unqualified new president in the way of Sam Olens.

The students and faculty of KSU held some protests over Olens  pending appointment to no avail. Their concerns stemmed over him being  completely unqualified and also due to his homophobic views. It was my understanding that both state and federal law required a legitimate national search to avoid just this sort of good ol’ boy cronyism.

In fact the process of hiring a faculty member at KSU is far more rigorous than it was for selecting their new president. (See page 6 on link) Take a look at the rigorous selection process SUNY must follow to select a new university president by comparison. I don’t see how it was possible to meet the requirements of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action laws when the successor was hand-picked.

According to the American Association of University Professors. 

Joint effort of a most critical kind must be taken when an name institution chooses a new president. The selection of a chief administrative officer should follow upon a cooperative search by the governing board and the faculty, taking into consideration the opinions of others who are appropriately interested.

Sam Olens was a complete failure as the Attorney General and will be just as inept for a job in which he has no expertise or training. Running a large university like KSU isn’t a job you want someone to take on with no prior experience. With the appointment of another crony hired (also with no national search) as chancellor of the USG,  the shuffle of underlings indebted to the real power brokers pulling the strings is now a fait accompli.

Here are ten reasons that may be behind this minion shuffle.

1) Olens is facing criminal obstruction of justice claims in two different civil RICO suits for making knowing misrepresentations to protect the Board of Regents from independent investigations. One case involves evidence tampering and perjury in a failed attempt to revoke the tenure of UGA Professor Dezso Bendedek. The other involves the knowing falsification of Georgia Perimeter College budget reports to former GPC President Anthony Tricoli–a felony the Attorney General admitted occurred–to disguise the illegal diversion of millions in taxpayer dollars.

2) One of Olens’ knowing misrepresentations is that there is no evidence to support claims of evidence tampering and perjury in the Benedek case. At the same time, Olens is opposing efforts to admit the sworn statements of UGA employees willing to testify under oath that the Attorney General’s office advised the witnesses called to testify against Benedek in the failed tenure revocation attempt that they could conceal UGA records, manufacture false evidence, and give knowingly false testimony under oath–because they would be protected by sovereign immunity.

3) In addition to falsely claiming there is no evidence to support Benedek’s allegations (while fighting to keep the witness statements out), Olens has branded Benedek’s counsel as “an outlandish conspiracy theorist” engaging in “attention-seeking gimmicks.” Olens went a step further, seeking a federal court order to bar the attorney from bringing claims against Olens–on grounds that Olens was forced to concede were false representations to the federal court.

 4) Before that case was transferred to federal court–over the course of three years of litigation, in which the state court judge repeatedly barred claims against Olens–Olens and the state court judge both failed to disclose their close personal, political, and financial ties. Fulton State Court Judge Susan Edlein denied a motion to recuse herself from the case–on the false grounds, contradicted by the public record, that a supporting affidavit was not filed–and misrepresented her actions in defense of Olens to a Fulton Superior Court judge. One of Edlein’s orders barring Benedek’s claims vacated when she was reversed by the Georgia Court of Appeals, and Edlein vacated a second order protecting Olens after the initiation of a federal investigation of the Olens-Edlein connection.

5) Olens and Edlein are now co-defendants in the Benedek case, but with separate counsel. Olens, however, continues to defend both himself and his Board of Regents co-defendants in the Tricoli and Benedek cases. This co-defendant representation raises a conflict of interest for Olens in violation of the Georgia’s rules of legal ethics.

6) In defending against Anthony Tricoli’s claims that GPC and University System of Georgia budget officials knowingly falsified reports to him, Olens has asserted the defense that President Tricoli should have personally checked the work papers of the accounting and audit staff tho ascertain that they were lying to him. The misrepresentations to Tricoli are admitted, since the USG and GPC budget staff were emailing each other about an imminent financial collapse at the same time they were making official reports of a “normal budget process” to Tricoli.

7) Olens accepted an after-the-fact report by the USG auditors blaming Tricoli for GPC’s budget crisis, despite the evidence that the budget reports to Tricoli were knowingly falsified. The USG also blamed Tricoli for $1.5 million a year in payments to an outside contractor that had been omitted from the budget reports and concealed from Tricoli. Olens accepted this USG report blaming Tricoli as conclusive that there was no need for further criminal investigation.

8) Olens also argued, in personal correspondence, that the USG report blaming Tricoli was thorough and conclusive–in order to deter an independent investigation of the GPC finances and payments to the off-budget consultants, who according to USG records would have had to work full-time 28 days a week in order to bill the amount they were paid.

9) In the more recent financial scandal at Kennesaw State University, findings of fraud and graft in the school’s dining services by reporter Randy Travis were quickly overshadowed by another report issued by the USG finding that KSU President Daniel Papp supposedly violated USG compensation policies. Papp was forced out, tarring him with the separate dining services scandal, even though all Papp’s supposedly improper compensation had been previously approved by the USG itself. Olens declined to have the Attorney General’s office investigate these matters at KSU.

10) So is Olens leaving the AG’s office, one step ahead of the RICO claims and ethics charges, to clean up KSU’s financial house, or–as happened at Georgia Perimeter College, with Olens’ support and defense–to make sure that no one ever knows the true extent of the financial wrongdoing or where the trail of misappropriated taxpayer money leads within the USG?

By Alan Wood

Musings of an unabashed and unapologetic liberal deep in the heart of a Red State. Crusader against obscurantism. Optimistic curmudgeon, snark jockey, lovably opinionated purveyor of wisdom and truth. Multi-lingual world traveler and part-time irreverent philosopher who dabbles in writing, political analysis, and social commentary. Attempting to provide some sanity and clarity to complex issues with a dash of sardonic wit and humor. Thanks for visiting!

4 thoughts on “Ten Reasons Sam Olens May Have Resigned as AG to go to KSU”
  1. Olens should be in jail for committing RICO crimes. In the Tricoli case, he enabled criminal acts against Tricoli to go unchecked, and even fought for sovereign immunity for those who committed those crimes while working for the USG and GPC. Tricoli’s future as an outstanding college leader was destroyed by several illegal acts protected by Sam Olens. He should be going to jail, and not to Kennesaw State University.

  2. After 15 years in the Office of a USG college president and Whistleblower since 2009, I witnessed the fact Sam Olens allowed the Regents’ “90/60” unwritten policy which misappropriates tax dollars allocated annually for education, whereby, retired USG presidents are rehired as “consultants” or part-time faculty and paid 90% of their presidential salary for the first two years and 60%, thereafter. i.e., former USG President David Bell’s salary for 2010-2014 was $1,599,375.92 (yes, over 1.5 million!) with three of those years as a part-time professor teaching one class each semester! Olens’ desire to be a USG college president is his means to follow the “money-train” as the increasing number of lawsuits confirming his cover up for the Regents are catching up with him. The confirmed malfeasance in my whistleblower case alone is so serious Sam Olens filed FIVE “Responses in Opposition” to keep the facts hidden from public view! The Regents are more than happy to appease Olens with this new position as Olens has covered for them since his first day in office.
    http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/23934987/investigation-exposes-allegations-that-board-of-regents-mishandles-employee-appeals
    https://gwmac.com/poitevint-deposition/

  3. Sam Olens could have chosen to do the right thing in the Tricoli vs Wall, et.al case. But he chose to take the low road. He should go to jail, Go Directly To Jail with all of the other USG criminals. A felony is still a felony, and Sam Olens along with many others were proven guilty of many crimes. They used an 1800’s carry-over law to stay out of jail with a Sovereign Immunity finding. Our government is corrupt. Anthony Tricoli was screwed out his job, and we Georgia’s lost a great president in Dr T. Then Huckaby, Wrigley, Fuchko and company (with the assistance of Olens) did the exact same thing to Dan Papp. Both Papp and Tricoli are in good company because the are on the right side of the law. Send Olens and Wrigley, Huckaby and Fuchko to jail where they belong. I’m sure Georgia’s inmates would give the warm welcome they deserve.

  4. Dr. Anthony Tricoli got screwed out of his job and out of his career by a hand full of USG and State criminals. John Futchko’s totally fake and made up report, the lies told to the BOR by Huckaby, the underhanded and orchestrated set-up by Steve Wrigley, the lower than a snake bellies actions by Rob Watts, the lies told to the college and the president by Ron Carruth, Shelitha Champion and Jim Rasmus, the incessant stalking of Rob Jenkins, and the backstabbing of Julius Whittaker are what it took to unseat Georgia’s most successful college president.

    Today’s news from the AJC about the Georgia Tech cluster f—, should have resulted in Bud Peterson’s removal. But it didn’t because is a– hole buddies with Steve Wrigley. The Board of Regents should have the balls to fire Peterson and give Tricoli the hearing he requested three times. As a college president he had the right to that hearing. Tricoli’s attorney Stephen Humphreys is not crazy, as he’s been portrayed by the USG and Olens and BOR…..he’s completely sane, and he should be given a platform by the BOR and Attorney General Carr, and the AJC. He got the goods on the USG and former Attorney General, let’s see the goods.

    If the Tricoli story would ever get press it deserves in the AJC (the AJC is bought-off by the USG and BOR) the state legislators and governor would have no choice but to take action to reconstruct the entire USG. Give Tricoli his BOR hearing and you’ll see why Olens is no longer Attorney General. Corrupt bastards!

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