Search warrant issued in UNM donation by Krebs

The state Attorney General’s Office last week executed a search warrant for bank records of the wife of former University of New Mexico athletic director Paul Krebs, looking specifically for information about a large payment she made from her bank account to a credit card her husband used to make a $25,000 donation amid the fallout of a 2015 Scotland golf junket.

Gene Gallegos, the former UNM regent and attorney for Krebs and his wife, Marjori, says Paul Krebs has never denied making a donation to the UNM Foundation in the amount of $25,000 — roughly the same amount of public money used to pay for three Lobo athletics boosters to attend a golf trip to Scotland. He says the continued searches of the Krebs’ financial records is merely to keep the matter in the media.

“It is not illegal, unethical or improper for Paul Krebs to make a donation to the University of New Mexico Foundation,” Gallegos told the Journal. “The AG’s Office has known the origin of the funds. The only reason for issuing a search warrant is to do something dramatic that will result in media attention.”

UNM and Krebs, who retired in 2017, have acknowledged making a mistake by using school money to pay for the nonschool employees, and Krebs later admitted to initially misleading both the media and his bosses at UNM.

The AG’s Office, meanwhile, continues to investigate UNM athletics department finances and connections to its fundraising arm, the Lobo Club, and to the university’s fundraising arm, the UNM Foundation.

The search warrant affidavit filed Wednesday in the 2nd Judicial District Court indicates that while investigators have confirmed a credit card belonging to Paul Krebs is the source of a May 2017 payment to the UNM Foundation, agents want more information about why Marjori Krebs, a current UNM employee, made a payment to that credit card from her personal bank account the same day in the amount of $25,000.

“The use of the credit card, and immediate repayment, instead of directly issuing a payment to the UNM Foundation or the University itself appears to be an added layer used to keep the identity of the donor anonymous,” special agent Antonio Vargas wrote.

In at least one email exchange with his wife about the matter, Paul Krebs instructed her to “delete everything I sent when done so nothing is discoverable in (public records) request. Including from your delete file. Thanks.”