TPS audit flagged a conflict; 16 months later, $779K in charges
Summary
A February 2025 Oklahoma state audit found Tulsa Public Schools' bond-program executive, Chris Hudgins, was secretly subcontracted by Allied Engineering -- a vendor paid more than $8.4 million by the district over nine years, whose projects Hudgins himself helped oversee and approve. The audit called it a conflict of interest and referred it for further review. In June 2026, Oklahoma's Attorney General charged Hudgins and two Allied partners with 27 counts alleging more than $779,000 was billed to voter-approved bond funds for roofing work that was never performed, with most of it funneled back through Hudgins' own consulting firm.
The systemic backdrop
Tulsa Public Schools educates more than 33,000 children⧉ across 78 schools. At Governor Kevin Stitt's request, the State Auditor and Inspector's Forensic Audit Division reviewed more than $37.7 million of the district's spending from 2015 to 2023 -- more than 90 vendors, over 900 transactions -- and found more than 1,400 discrepancies spanning nearly eight years. More than $25 million of that spending was paid without following the district's own competitive-bid policy, which requires a formal RFP or sealed bid for any purchase of $50,000 or more; auditors separately flagged 19 vendors whose purchases were structured just below that $50,000 threshold.
The bond office's second job
Inside that spending, auditors singled out Chris Hudgins, TPS's Executive Director of Bond & Energy Management since 2015 and, since 1999, the owner of a private firm called M & G Consulting Services. Allied Engineering -- a TPS vendor for HVAC, roofing, and site-renovation work -- was paid more than $8.4 million by the district⧉ between September 2015 and July 2024. Hudgins managed the bond budgets that funded Allied's projects and sat on the committee that awarded some of its bids -- while, the audit found, his own firm was working as Allied's subcontractor. In 2019 alone, Allied was paid $812,772 by TPS and reported $319,024 in non-employee compensation to Hudgins, the same year his TPS salary ran about $120,000. The audit concluded the arrangement was a conflict of interest under district policy, raised the possibility of statutory violations, and said the matter had 'been communicated to proper authorities and should be considered for further review.'
Sixteen months later, charges
Hudgins left the district in February 2025, the same month the audit came out. On June 4, 2026, Attorney General Gentner Drummond and Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler announced⧉ 27 counts of conspiracy, embezzlement, and kickbacks against Hudgins and two Allied Engineering partners, Gayle Gwinup and Thomas McKenna. Prosecutors allege Hudgins directed TPS to pay Allied more than $779,000 for roofing projects the company never performed, and that Allied then paid more than $736,000 of it to Hudgins' own M & G Consulting for work that was likewise never done. McKenna, prosecutors say, used a separate company, Starr Design Group, to extend the same pattern to additional TPS campuses. The announcement noted a second SA&I forensic audit of the district was underway at the time, expected to be released in July 2026.
View data as table
| Total paid to Allied Engineering, Sept. 2015-Jul. 2024 | 8,400,000 |
|---|---|
| Alleged fraudulent roofing billings, per June 2026 charges | 779,000 |
The takeaway
- The audit named the conflict; it took 16 months to become criminal charges. The 2025 report found Hudgins' firm was subcontracted by a vendor he helped oversee and flagged it for referral -- it did not, and could not, establish the specific fraud allegations prosecutors filed in June 2026.
- A small slice of a large relationship is now alleged to be criminal. The $779,000 roofing scheme prosecutors describe is a fraction of the $8.4 million-plus TPS paid Allied Engineering over nine years -- most of that spending isn't part of the criminal filing.
- The conflict-of-interest finding sat alongside a much larger bidding-policy failure. More than $25 million of the $37.7 million the audit sampled bypassed the district's own competitive-bid requirement -- a systemic gap the Hudgins case is one documented instance of, not the whole of it.
Hudgins, Gwinup, and McKenna are charged, not convicted; the Attorney General's office states every person charged 'is presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.' The specific dollar figures in the June 2026 charges ($779,000 billed, $736,000 subcontracted back) are prosecutors' allegations, distinct from the 2025 audit's own conflict-of-interest finding, which did not itself quantify a fraud amount.
The chart's roughly-9% comparison is a scale illustration, not a precise accounting share: the $8.4 million Allied total and the $779,000 roofing-scheme figure are both stated as floors ('more than'/'in excess of') in two different documents -- an audit covering September 2015 to July 2024, and a June 2026 charging announcement that does not itself state the roofing scheme's date range.
A second SA&I forensic audit of Tulsa Public Schools was underway as of the June 2026 charges and expected to be released in July 2026; this piece covers only the February 2025 audit and the June 2026 charging announcement, both of which are complete public records as of this writing.
Sources(3) ▾
- Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector (Cindy Byrd), Tulsa Public Schools Special Audit Report (2025-02-26) — The state's own special audit of Tulsa Public Schools, performed by the SA&I Forensic Audit Division at Governor Stitt's request under 74 O.S. Sec. 212(C). Covers a review of more than $37.7 million in district expenditures, 2015-2023, including the Policy 5202 (competitive-bid) violations and the Chris Hudgins / Allied Engineering conflict-of-interest finding. Fetched directly and converted with pdftotext -layout. sai.ok.gov · original document
- Oklahoma Office of the Attorney General (Gentner Drummond), Drummond, Kunzweiler: Former Tulsa Schools executive charged in $780K school fund scheme (2026-06-04) — The Attorney General's own release announcing the 27-count criminal filing against Chris Hudgins, Gayle Gwinup, and Thomas McKenna, with the dollar figures, scheme description, and confirmation that a second SA&I forensic audit was underway at the time of charging. oklahoma.gov · original document
- Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector, Report Fraud in Government (2026-07-18) — The SA&I office's own public fraud-reporting channel (hotline, mailing address, online form) -- fetched this iteration to source the article's call-to-action, not for any load-bearing fact. sai.ok.gov · original document
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A special audit of Tulsa Public Schools⧉ released in February 2025 found that the district's own bond-program executive, Chris Hudgins, ran a private consulting business that was subcontracted by Allied Engineering -- a vendor Hudgins himself helped select and whose projects he managed. The audit called it a conflict of interest and referred it for further review. Sixteen months later, Oklahoma's Attorney General⧉ charged Hudgins and two Allied partners with 27 criminal counts, alleging more than $779,000 in bond money was billed for roofing work that was never done.