LDN - Sports

House committee: Daniel Snyder, execs hid revenue from NFL

[April 13, 2022] A congressional committee sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission on
Tuesday to share evidence showing that Washington Commanders owner Daniel
Snyder withheld refundable deposits from ticket holders and hid revenue from
the NFL.

The allegations were laid out in a 20-page letter sent by the U.S. House
Committee on Oversight and Reform and obtained by The Washington Post.

"Evidence obtained by the Committee ... indicate senior executives and the
team's owner, Daniel Snyder, may have engaged in a troubling, long-running,
and potentially unlawful pattern of financial conduct that victimized
thousands of team fans and the National Football League (NFL)," the letter
began.

The discovery of potential financial impropriety came amid the committee's
investigation into sexual harassment within Washington's workplace. The
committee began to look at the financials after combing through 80,000 pages
of documents and witness interviews regarding sexual harassment, the
Washington Post reported on March 31.

The financial allegations center on the testimony of Jason Friedman, who
worked for the franchise for 24 years. He held the title of vice president of
sales and customer service when he was let go by the club.

Friedman told the committee that the team kept "two sets of books" to
underreport ticket revenue to the NFL. Revenues from Commanders games would instead be shown as derived from non-NFL events, like college football games or concerts. Those monies were called "juice" -- extra money for the team and kept hidden so as to not be subject to the NFL's revenue-sharing pool, per the letter.

The committee also indicated that Snyder withheld as much as $5 million in
refundable deposits from season ticket holders.

Friedman "provided the Committee with information and documents indicating
that the Commanders routinely withheld security deposits that should have been
returned to customers who had purchased multiyear season tickets for specific seats, referred to as seat leases," according to the letter. "... team
executives directed employees to establish roadblocks to prevent customers from obtaining the security deposits they were due -- effectively allowing the team to retain that money."

[to top of second column]

"Quite frankly, as you go through the allegations it reads like a description
of some organization out of the Godfather and not an NFL football team," Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) told ESPN.

The NFL released a statement later Tuesday.

"We continue to cooperate with the Oversight Committee and have provided more than 210,000 pages of documents. The NFL has engaged former SEC chair Mary Jo White to review the serious matters raised by the committee," read the statement.

The Commanders denied the allegations and are standing on their statement from
March 31 when the Post first reported the discovery of financial
improprieties.

"The team categorically denies any suggestion of financial impropriety of any kind at any time," read that statement. "We adhere to strict internal
processes that are consistent with industry and accounting standards, are
audited annually by a globally respected independent auditing firm, and are
also subject to regular audits by the NFL. We continue to cooperate fully with the Committee's work."

The committee interviewed Friedman on March 14.

"Given the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) authority to investigate unfair or
deceptive business practices, we are providing the information and documents uncovered by the Committee for your review, to determine if the Commanders violated any provision of law enforced by FTC and whether further action is warranted," the committee's letter says. "We request that you take any other action you deem necessary to ensure that all funds are returned to their rightful owners and that those responsible are held accountable for their conduct."

--Field Level Media

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