Pennsylvania taxpayers are footing the $240,000 legal bill of a former state university administrator who was fired after an internal investigation substantiated allegations of financial impropriety and sexual misconduct toward students, according to a settlement agreement obtained by The Associated Press.

The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, which oversees 14 state universities, agreed to pay Isaac Sanders’ lawyer after he successfully defended Sanders in a federal civil lawsuit filed by six students at East Stroudsburg University. The settlement, dated June 14 and obtained through a public records request, prohibits Pennsylvania’s higher education agency and Sanders from commenting on the agreement or “disparaging the reputation, character or business of the other party.”

State System spokesman Kenn Marshall declined to say why the state decided to pay for Sanders’ lawyer, Harry Coleman, given that the higher education agency fired Sanders over his conduct toward students.

The state attorney general’s office, meanwhile, said Tuesday that it’s no longer seeking to force the students to pay $10,000 in court costs.

The state is preparing to defend itself from a $50 million lawsuit that Sanders filed last week against the State System, alleging wrongful termination.

The former students, now in their 20s and 30s, said Sanders used his high-powered job to offer them gifts, scholarships and campus jobs, then sexually harassed or assaulted them. East Stroudsburg fired Sanders in 2008, saying an investigation by its outside law firm had shown he “exercised exceedingly poor judgment concerning these individuals.”

Sanders, who was the university’s vice president for advancement, has always denied sexually touching any of the men, and a civil jury ruled in his favor in 2014. He has never been charged with a crime, though it’s unclear the extent to law enforcement agencies ever investigated the students’ allegations.