ALBANY — A top official at SUNY's Upstate Medical University resigned Monday in the wake of a Times Union report on apparent fabrications in his professional biography.

Posted online Saturday, the Times Union's story on the school's chief of staff, Sergio Garcia, revealed that a number of claims he made in a videotaped speech last fall do not stand up to scrutiny. Among them were Garcia's account of being present at what he said was the 2011 bombing in Afghanistan that took the life of a young diplomat, that he had been interviewed for a State Department post by then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice remains his close friend and mentor.

Garcia's account of the bombing — which actually took place in 2013, months after Garcia had left Afghanistan for an academic post in Ohio — was refuted by witnesses who were there, and sources close to Powell and Rice shot down Garcia's assertions about them.

Late Sunday, Upstate Medical University said Garcia would be placed on leave. By Monday, he'd resigned.

"After an expeditious review of the troubling accusations made against Upstate Medical University's chief of staff, and at the request of Upstate President Danielle Laraque-Arena, MD, FAAP, Sergio Garcia has resigned, effective immediately," Upstate Medical University said in a statement.

"The allegations are contradictory to Upstate's shared values of being open and honest, and the president and her leadership team will work together to confirm these values are instilled at every level of the organization."

The school declined to answer questions about Garcia's account. It also refused requests to make Garcia and University President Danielle Laraque-Arena available for interviews.

In a statement provided to the Times Union on Monday evening, Garcia apologized for what he referred to as "unintentional errors ... as I attempted to provide a lot of information in a short amount of time of my personal and professional journey in serving our country with honor and distinction."

He acknowledged that he had not been in Afghanistan when the bombing occurred.

In similar statements provided to the Syracuse Post-Standard on Monday, Garcia refused to discuss his debunked claims about interactions with Powell and Rice, and his assertion that he had worked in the White House in the immediate aftermath of the September 2001 terror attacks.

"I will not discuss personal events or personal conversations," Garcia said, despite having described them in detail in his speech last year.

Garcia, 43, had been a $340,000-a-year senior vice president and chief of staff since his appointment in March 2017. The school is the Syracuse region's largest employer.

In March, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that Garcia had been nominated to a fellowship with the State University of New York's Hispanic Leadership Institute.

Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, distanced the governor from any involvement in Garcia's appointment.

"This is a SUNY endeavor and the fellows were selected by a steering committee of SUNY staff," he said. "The governor created the institute, but we have not played any role in picking the fellows."