The Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) " The State University of New York has placed a high-ranking official on leave after a newspaper questioned a story he told about surviving a bombing in Afghanistan and other claims.

The Times Union reports SUNY Upstate Medical University senior vice president Sergio Garcia said in a videotaped speech last fall that he was at the scene of a 2011 bombing in Afghanistan, and that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is his close friend.

The newspaper reported the bombing Garcia described actually happened in 2013, after he had left the country. Rice was not immediately available for comment.

The university in Syracuse announced Sunday it placed the $340,000 staffer on leave while it investigates.

University officials declined requests for comment from Garcia.