Washington Commanders may have broken financial laws, House Committee letter alleges

A congressional committee sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday to share evidence alleging 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 indicates 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.

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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 $5m 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."

"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."