STILLWATER, Okla.—A Colorado man accused of defrauding an Oklahoma State University official of $570,000 is fighting extradition to Oklahoma, according to law enforcement authorities.
Bradley James Stroup, who reportedly operated Stroup Financial Network, LLC, in Broomfield, Colo., has been charged with defrauding OSU football operations director Jimmy Gonzales.
Among money allegedly defrauded was $425,000 that was donated by Texas oilman and OSU donor Boone Pickens to a foundation for children with special needs, officials said.
Stroup, 45, was arrested on a Payne County warrant in Broomfield, Colo., and allowed to post a fugitive bond of $100,000 in Colorado on Monday, Payne County Undersheriff Charlie Lawson said.
“He’s fighting extradition to Oklahoma,” Lawson said.
Stroup could receive as much as 30 years in prison and a $15,000 fine if convicted of three counts of obtaining money by false pretense from Gonzales in alleged investment scams in 2005 and 2006.
Victimized in the scam was the nonprofit Mya Gonzales Foundation, started by Jimmy Gonzales and his wife, Mary. It is named after their daughter who has Down syndrome. Mya attends the Rise School of Stillwater, which opened a year ago with the help of funds from the foundation.
“Well do everything we can to get him here to face charges, to bring him to justice. The victim was not just Jimmy Gonzales, but the foundation,” Payne County District Attorney Rob Hudson said Tuesday.
The Rise School, which is part of the OSU College of Human Environmental Sciences, places children with developmental disabilities in the same classroom with typically developing children.
The DA filed charges against Stroup last week following what he termed “a very thorough investigation” by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, which interviewed witnesses in Colorado, Minnesota and Texas, court records show.
Stroup and Gonzales became acquainted 20 years ago when they were both coaching at the University of Wisconsin, according to an affidavit by OSBI agent Richard Brown.
Stroup is accused of having obtained $95,000 in 2005 and $50,000 in 2006 of Gonzales’ money after representing to him that he was working a major deal with the Virginia Teachers Association and needed Gonzales to invest monies, “when, in fact, this was a misrepresentation and the defendant kept the monies for his own use and benefit,” according to two of the counts.
Stroup is accused of having obtained $425,000 belonging to the Mya Gonzales Foundation in 2006 after Stroup “had a land deal that would make money and needed Jimmy Gonzales to invest monies owned by the Mya Gonzales Foundation, when, in fact, this was a misrepresentation and the defendant kept the monies for his own use and benefit,” according to the third count.
