OSU lobbying invoices part of larger Innovation Foundation financial problems

Newly released open records reveal a small example of the financial issues that led to an investigation of how Oklahoma State University spent state-appropriated funds. 

Previous OSU president Kayse Shrum resigned from the position effective February 3 during the early stages of an investigation. 

In an email chain News 9 obtained, a group of employees working for OSU, its Innovation Foundation, and the unaffiliated OSU Foundation discussed cash flow needs for Cowboy Technologies, LLC, a subsidiary of the Innovation Foundation. 

“Terri Tinkler and I are working together to get the consulting services invoice from Cowboy Technologies paid,” wrote April Collier, executive financial assistant for President Shrum, on January 7, referencing a colleague who is listed online as an employee for OSU-Center for Health Sciences. “I was contacted by the OSU Foundation and they would like to handle this a little bit differently than in the past. They would prefer that we transfer the money into your OSU Foundation account. Please let me know what that number is.” 

“I’m not sure that Cowboy Technologies, LLC has an OSU Foundation account,” Cowboy Technologies associate vice president Daniel Will wrote in a response to Collier on Jan. 7. “And if it did (or was created) how would it work for the money to be transferred out of this Cowboy Technologies, LLC account with the OSU Foundation via check to Cowboy Technologies, LLC’s bank account which manages the university consultant invoices? In the past, a president’s account or OSU-Center for Health Sciences account at the OSU Foundation was used to issue check payment to Cowboy Technologies, LLC’s bank account.” 

Further down in the email, Will added, “Regardless of the decided-on financial processing, this needs to be handled very quickly as Cowboy Technologies has expended all its working capital on paying the contractually obligated university consultant invoices from July 2024 through November 2024, and now December 2024 invoices are due, since no payment has been received from OSUF to date in FY 2025.” 

“Dawn would like me to use an OSU Foundation transfer form to pay the invoice,” Collier responded. She referenced an apparent previous conversation with Dawn Barnard, VP & Chief Financial Officer for the OSU Foundation. 

The prior conversation Collier referenced was not part of the returned open records News 9 received. 

“My understanding from you is that Cowboy Technologies does not have an account at the OSU Foundation; however, the Innovation Foundation does. I could move monies for General University Support over to that account if that is agreeable with you and those who are over that account,” Collier continued in her email. 

Information from the March 2025 internal financial audit identified that Cowboy Technologies only had $2,500 cash left in its account. 

The OSU Foundation is wholly separate from the university and the Innovation Foundation, but the chain of emails created apparent confusion about the commingling of funds to pay outstanding invoices for Cowboy Technologies. 

“This is further confusing to me,” Will responds on January 8. "So, Dawn is saying that no OSUF funds can be used to pay Cowboy Technologies' invoice for managing the lobbyist university consultants and payments to the lobbyist, no matter which OSUF account is used? But then there is some kind of transfer idea Dawn has suggested that may work that I’m still not clear about?” 

“I need to be clear that I am not advocating or directing anything for this issue. My involvement has been that OSUF cannot pay the invoices as presented either from OSUF funds or the President’s Funds because of the consulting/lobbying nature of the invoices,” Barnard wrote in a January 8 email to the group. 

The internal audit found that the Innovation Foundation had wrongly written a check for $500,000 to Cowboy Technologies to bridge the need to pay its outstanding invoices. 

"Because FY ‘24 funds in the Innovation Foundation, Inc. were commingled with state appropriated funds and then transferred to Cowboy Technologies, LLC, it is difficult to ascertain with clarity which funds were used to make such payments,” an OSU spokesperson told News 9. “However, the payment of lobbyists through Cowboy Technologies, LLC ceased in February 2025. The audit report recommended that any state appropriated funds transferred to Cowboy Technologies, LLC be returned, and OSU has agreed to ensure this is accomplished.” 

The Innovation Foundation is expected to reimburse the university at least $11.5 million for unallowed expenses. 

“These expenses include, but are not limited to, salaries for Innovation Foundation employees, a transfer to a for-profit entity, Innovation Foundation employee clothing, consulting, Innovation Foundation furniture, Innovation Foundation marketing, etc,” the spokesperson said. “These expenses were paid via legislatively restricted funds — a funding source that was never intended to be used for those purposes.” 

Overall, the March internal audit found $41 million in legislative funds had been improperly commingled with other money.