Top executives at the Fiesta Bowl funneled campaign contributions to local politicians, flew other Arizona elected officials around the country at the bowl’s expense, racked up a $1,200 bill at a strip club and even spent $30,000 on a birthday party for the chief executive, according to an investigative report commissioned by the bowl’s board of directors.

The most serious revelations involve nearly a dozen employees who told investigators that the chief executive and others working for the bowl, the host of one of the nation’s pre-eminent college football games, encouraged them to make political contributions, then reimbursed them with sham bonus payments. Some said they were then pressured to lie about the practice.

The investigators do not make conclusions about whether bowl executives or others broke the law, but at least one expert in nonprofit organizations said the findings could lead to criminal charges. At a minimum, the investigation may threaten the tax-exempt status of the bowl, which, like most other prominent organizations in college sports, is formally registered as a charity.

Some aspects of the campaign contribution scheme were reported by The Arizona Republic in 2009, prompting an initial inquiry by the board of directors as well as an investigation by Arizona’s state attorney general. Tom Horne, the attorney general, said in a statement that the report, which has been presented to his office, will assist his office in its continuing investigation.