Former President Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. is misused university funds, an investigation found. Credit: Daniel Bush | Campus Photo Editor
An internal Ohio State investigation found former President Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. misused his position, and university resources, on a personal relationship.
The report, released this morning, said that for nearly two years Carter leveraged his presidency to seek resources from Ohio State and key university partners to benefit Krisanthe Vlachos, the host of a military and veterans podcast. Carter abruptly resigned on March 7, citing an inappropriate relationship.
“Carter put his own interests and those of Vlachos before the university’s interests,” the report stated. “Carter had a close personal and business relationship with Vlachos, and he allowed that relationship to improperly influence his actions and impair his judgment.”
The investigation also found that Chris Kabourek, former senior vice president for administration and planning and senior advisor to Carter, was Vlachos’ primary point of contact at the university. Kabourek resigned April 14, citing a decision to pursue other professional opportunities, per prior Lantern reporting.
“Kabourek went far beyond any other employee in supporting Carter’s efforts to assist Vlachos, both inside and outside the university; he failed to stop or report those efforts himself; and he failed to appropriately address concerns raised to him by other employees,” the report said.
According to the press release, the report recommends that the Board of Trustees independently review travel and expenditure requests submitted by the president, review practices on leadership requests for assistance within university units and consider revisions to ethics and insider threat training for senior leaders.
John W. Zeiger, chair of the Board of Trustees, said in a press release the board is grateful for work that went into the report.
“Its findings regarding our former president are deeply disappointing, but it is gratifying the university’s systems and processes – and the people charged with implementing them – prevented misuse of Ohio State’s resources,” Zeiger said.
Vlachos is the host of “The Callout” a podcast meant to connect military and veterans to the future of energy and utilities using AI, according to its YouTube channel description.
Carter was a frequent guest since 2024. Most recently, he appeared on the podcast in January before all episodes were deleted following his sudden resignation.
Vlachos produced her podcast in the WOSU building, located next to Ohio State’s campus at 1800 N. Pearl St. She agreed to pay WOSU about $93,000 to produce 50 episodes between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026.
Vlachos received $60,000 from JobsOhio, Ohio’s economic development agency, to create four podcast episodes, per prior Lantern reporting. JobsOhio said that scheduling issues led to only one of those episodes being produced. It has since been deleted and JobsOhio wants its money back.
It is not known the status of JobsOhio request.
Throughout Carter’s time as president, the investigation found that he and Vlachos had at least 24 separate meetings, both in person and online, including his podcast appearances. The meetings ranged from discussing events they were attending together, Vlachos’ podcast and general meetings.
This is a breaking story that will be updated when more information is obtained.
This story has been updated to show the total number of meetings, per the investigatory report.
