Report reveals former Ohio State president repeatedly misused his position, key to JobsOhio scandal

The Ohio State University investigators revealed that former university president Ted Carter repeatedly misused his position to benefit a podcaster with whom he had a personal relationship, including by helping her get $60,000 from JobsOhio, the state’s maligned economic development firm, for her podcast.

Carter resigned from his job on March 8 after it was discovered that he had a romantic relationship with Krisanthe Vlachos, a podcaster who illegally used public resources to help her business. According to the 47-page report, Carter “had allowed that relationship to improperly influence his actions and impair his judgment.”

READ HERE: Investigation Report Into the Circumstances Surrounding Ted Carter’s Resignation

“Carter put his own interests and those of Vlachos before the university’s interests. Carter’s actions betrayed Ohio State’s Shared Values and violated university policy,” investigators wrote in the report. “For almost two years, Carter used the authority of his position to make wide-ranging efforts to assist Vlachos both inside and outside the university.”

Investigators also concluded that university employees were improperly influenced by Carter, or others acting at his direction, to help Vlachos and that they were deterred from raising concerns about any interactions involving Vlachos.

Even though the report admitted that Carter was mainly responsible for pushing JobsOhio to invest in Vlachos’s podcast, violating Ohio State policy and Ohio ethics law, improperly providing Vlachos with university resources, and misusing his public position to benefit her, the investigators concluded that Carter should not be penalized for his actions.

The report said that Vlachos constantly “leveraged Carter’s name” by including him on emails and requests to get what she wanted. She also had a business relationship with Ohio State, a $93,716 contract with WOSU for podcast production services covering 50 episodes and allowing her to use a WOSU “desk/cubicle” free of charge.

Investigators also revealed that the couple went on at least five trips together, including a Jan. 6-9 trip to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, and had at least 24 separate meetings, with Carter appearing on Vlachos’s podcast at least five times.

“JobsOhio requested Carter’s presence and participation at JobsOhio-hosted private meetings, panel sessions, podcast, and media interviews,” according to the report. “None of the documentation for this trip listed Vlachos, although the investigation revealed that Carter asked JobsOhio to invite Vlachos to join JobsOhio’s delegation to the conference, and they agreed. Notably, Vlachos did not submit any expenses to JobsOhio, which did not pay for her travel.”

Even though the university allegedly did not pay any of Vlachos’s travel expenses, the investigators said Carter may have “fabricated a reasonable business justification for a trip in order to travel with Vlachos at the university’s expense.”

The report also said that Carter used his power to try to hire Vlachos at the university. Additionally, Vlachos obtained a BuckID, the university’s ID card, and used it 1,745 times over 95 days, and used Carter’s work laptop at least twice.

Vlachos also tried to use her connection to Carter by securing letters of recommendation for her son.

No matter how much Carter tried to get the Ohio State partners to invest in Vlachos’ app for veterans, they refused because they didn’t see a practical benefit for Ohio State.

The report also alleged that billionaire Ohio State donor Les Wexner would invest in her app. However, Wexner’s attorney told investigators that Wexner never discussed or met with anyone regarding Vlachos’ app, and therefore never invested in it.

The university board replaced Carter with Ravi Bellamkonda, Ohio State’s executive vice president and provost, in March. Bellamkonda was hired by Carter in early 2025.

“It is important for me and our leadership team to share this material with all of you so that we can all process the results together as a Buckeye community,” he said, according to WOSU Public Media.