Congress sends details of ‘troubling’ Commanders’ financial conduct to FTC

A Congressional committee investigating the Washington Commanders has sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission detailing “a pattern of deeply concerning business practices that were directed by senior leadership,” including owner Dan Snyder, based on allegations made in an interview with a former team executive.

In light of that interview, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform has shared the evidence stemming from it — which features information and documents it claims support the ex-employee’s allegations — in hopes that the FTC will review and decide if “further action” should be taken.

“[Washington] may have engaged in a troubling, long-running, and potentially unlawful pattern of financial conduct that may have victimized thousands of team fans and the National Football League,” the Committee wrote in a statement on Tuesday. “The Commanders may have intentionally withheld millions of dollars in refundable deposits owed to fans, and concealed revenues that were owed to the NFL as part of the League’s revenue-sharing agreement.”

The Oversight Committee letter went to the FTC as well as the attorneys general for Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. 

Jason Friedman, who was with the Washington organization for 24 years and served as a vice president of sales and customer service, provided the Committee with the evidence it has passed on to the FTC. Per the Committee, Friedman alleged in part that:

• Team executives “instructed [him] to withhold the security deposits” from fans who purchased premium seating and to “create artificial barriers to discourage customers from requesting the return of their deposits.”
• The team “improperly converted unclaimed security deposits into revenue to be used for other purposes,” revenue that some executives “referred to as ‘juice.'” Those instances “would occur when team executives believed the Commanders were ‘a little behind’ on sales numbers.”
• The team maintained “two sets of books” — one that was shared with the NFL but underreported certain ticket revenue, and another internal set of books that included the complete and accurate revenue and was “shown to Mr. Snyder.”

Friedman additionally explained to the Committee that Snyder and former Chief Operating Officer Mitch Gershman would tell him to identify “dormant” fan accounts where the unclaimed security deposits could easily be put back into Washington’s system as “juice.” At that point, Washington could then convert the deposit into something that wouldn’t have to be shared with the league, Friedman said.

If Friedman’s assertions about the withheld revenue, the security deposit handling and “juice” are proven true, Snyder and the franchise could face significant punishment. It would be be guilty of withholding money from every other NFL squad. A team is required to deposit 40% of ticket revenue from home games into a dispersal pot shared among the entire sport.

When reached for comment, the Commanders pointed back to a statement first given by a team spokesperson on March 31.

“The team categorically denies any suggestion of financial impropriety of any kind at any time….