Mike Clardy, director of University communications, issued a statement about a former Tiger's Unlimited employee's wrongful termination lawsuit on behalf of the University.
The University maintains the ticket sales were handled honestly.
"Allegations about athletics tickets have been thoroughly reviewed by internal and external auditors and reviewers," Clardy said via the University statement. "We are confident that athletic tickets sales have been managed in a fair and transparent manner."
W. Matthew Davis is listed as the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed Thursday, Oct. 15 in federal court.
Auburn University, University president Jay Gogue, athletic director Jay Jacobs, associate athletic directors David Benedict and Rich McGlynn, executive director on internal auditing Kevin Robinson and the Auburn University Board of Trustees are named as defendants.
Davis, former director of the priority program and director of sales for Auburn’s Tigers Unlimited program, claims he was fired in February after he reported the results of an audit to David Benedict, associate athletics director.
The lawsuit alleges the audit found between 3,500 and 3,800 tickets, that were meant to be sold through the Tigers Unlimited program, were being sold at face value.
After Benedict met with Jacobs about the reported discrepancy, Benedict told Davis to "keep his head down and his mouth shut" and "forget about those tickets," according to the lawsuit.
The document also cites a conversation between Travis Holtkamp, a Tigers Unlimited salesperson, and a potential customer.
"That potential customer told Holtkamp that he did not want to pay for a Tigers Unlimited and said 'Why would I? I'm getting these same tickets already,'" the lawsuit reads.
Davis also informed Benedict that hundreds of seats in the stadium are incorrectly marked and invoiced at a lesser contribution level causing losses in revenue and suggested that the Tigers Unlimited per seat contributions be audited by a Big 4 accounting firm, according to the document.
The lawsuit alleges "Davis reported these allegations to Benedict as a concerned Auburn alumni and fan of Auburn Athletics with the intent of helping the Athletic Department improving its financial situation."
The document also states Davis was baselessly the subject of an investigation into whether an employee was leaking student athlete information used in gambling.
During this investigation, officials discovered Davis had been in communication with Mark Tilson, athletic department consultant. Tilson, whose contract with the University had ended, was bidding on a new sales and marketing support contract for Tigers Unlimited.
The filing states Davis was unaware that Tilson's contract with Auburn had ended and Tilson was still visiting Auburn and providing consulting services to the University's athletics department.
The University suspended Davis from his position pending an investigation on the grounds that these communications were inappropriate, even though Davis "made it clear" in a meeting with Kevin Robinson, internal director of internal accounting, that the only information he gave Tilson was "provided pursuant to his belief that Tilson was still acting as a consultant to the Athletic Department," the filing alleges.
The lawsuit states Davis based this belief on discussions with Benedict, and emails between Benedict and Tilson that he personally saw during the time period.
"On December 11, 2014, Davis' counsel sent a letter to numerous Auburn officials and board members inquiring into Davis' employment status and raising several concerns, including the 'alleged' investigation that was being conducted by Kevin Robinson and the previous complaints that Davis had raised with Benedict prior to the Athletic Department beginning an investigation into the vague allegations of gambling improprieties," the document states.
Davis was terminated from his position at a meeting on Feb. 17, 2015. The termination letter cited his communications with Tilson, calling them "questionable at best."
But Davis maintains he was fired because of the original ticket conflict.
The lawsuit states the University violated the State Whistleblower Act and that Davis's First Amendment rights were violated.
The lawsuit requests that the court "issue a declaratory judgment that the employment policies, practices, procedures, conditions and customs of the Defendants" violated Davis's First Amendment rights and the State Whistleblower Act.
It also requests Davis be reinstated to his former position, including back-pay plus interest and other damages.
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