According to a letter sent from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, the Washington Commanders and owner Daniel Snyder “may have engaged in a troubling, long-running, and potentially unlawful pattern of financial conduct that allegedly involved withholding up to $5 million in refundable deposits from season ticket holders and also hiding money that was supposed to be shared among NFL owners.” The NFL is working with former SEC chair Mary Jo White to “review the serious matters raised by the committee.” White is also already investigating the sexual harassment claims against Snyder and Washington.
Among the many allegations in the 20-page letter includes those made by Jason Friedman, a former vice president of sales and customer service who worked for the franchise for 24 years. 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.” The letter also says Friedman told committee members the team maintained “two sets of books,” including one set of financial records used to underreport certain ticket revenue to the NFL.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy on Tuesday, “We continue to cooperate with the Oversight Committee and have provided more than 210,000 pages of documents.”
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