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Daniel Snyder was fined $60 million, by far the most important penalty ever levied towards an N.F.L. group proprietor, after he was discovered to have sexually harassed a girl who was each a former cheerleader and a advertising and marketing worker for the Washington Commanders.
A league-sponsored investigation launched Thursday discovered credible claims made by Tiffani Johnston, the previous group worker, who mentioned that Snyder put his hand on her thigh with out her consent at a piece dinner in 2005 or 2006, and that he later tried to push her towards the again seat of his automobile after the occasion. In keeping with the report, her account was supported by proof and contemporaneous witnesses.
The findings had been reported by Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor and chairwoman of the Securities and Change Fee, who spent 17 months trying into allegations of widespread sexual harassment towards executives on the group, together with Snyder, in addition to claims of economic improprieties.
The N.F.L. launched White’s report instantly after the 31 different golf equipment unanimously authorized the sale of the Commanders to an funding group led by Josh Harris for $6.05 billion, a report for an American professional sports activities group.
“The conduct substantiated in Ms. White’s findings has no place within the N.F.L.,” Commissioner Roger Goodell mentioned in an announcement. “We attempt for workplaces which are secure, respectful {and professional}. What Ms. Johnston skilled is inappropriate and opposite to the N.F.L.’s values.”
White’s report additionally substantiated claims made by a former Washington ticket government, Jason Friedman, who mentioned the group had deliberately shielded and withheld revenues that had been meant to be shared among the many league’s 32 groups. In keeping with the report, about $11 million in shareable revenues had been confirmed to have been improperly withheld.
The investigators wrote that they might neither conclude nor rule out that Snyder had directed or participated on this revenue-shielding, however that “at a minimal, he was conscious of sure efforts to attenuate income sharing.”
Johnston and Friedman made these allegations in early 2022 as a part of a congressional inquiry prompted by the league’s refusal to launch the main points of its first investigation into office harassment claims on the group in 2021.
“Dan Snyder has been pressured to promote the group he mentioned he would by no means promote, pay a large wonderful to the N.F.L. and there now exists an intensive public report of his private wrongdoing and the misconduct that occurred beneath his management,” Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, the attorneys representing greater than 40 former Commanders staff who spoke out about office misconduct, together with Johnston and Friedman, mentioned in an announcement.
Requested to make clear how the league decided the quantity of Snyder’s wonderful, Goodell responded, “It was a decision of all of the excellent issues together with Mary Jo White’s findings. It was one thing that the finance committee thought-about, really useful unanimously and the membership accepted unanimously.”
Although the investigators spoke with 44 witnesses, together with former staff whom the group launched from nondisclosure agreements, and reviewed tens of hundreds of paperwork made accessible by the Commanders, Snyder was additionally penalized for failing to completely cooperate of their inquiry.
He refused for practically a yr to talk with White, and, when he lastly did, he met for just one hour to disclaim the allegations of sexual harassment. He additionally mentioned he had “little information or recollection of any substantive info related to the monetary points.”
White mentioned the group for a lot of months didn’t produce paperwork to elucidate why it had moved thousands and thousands of {dollars} from accounts with shared N.F.L. income to different accounts.
The Commanders intentionally violated the league’s revenue-sharing guidelines by way of practices that included improperly classifying income from N.F.L. video games as coming from different particular occasions, in addition to reporting falsely lowered ticket costs to the league, the report mentioned.
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