Daniel Snyder to sell Commanders to Josh Harris group for $6.05 billion
USA TODAY Sports’ Lorenzo Reyes breaks down the details around the sale of the Washington Commanders.
USA TODAY
Minutes after the NFL formally announced Josh Harris as the new owner of the Washington Commanders, replacing Dan Snyder, the league issued a second press release that amounted to a swift kick out the door for the outgoing owner.
The league released a 23-page investigative report compiled by former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White and her team, 17 months after commissioner Roger Goodell tabbed White to lead an investigation into the Commanders for sexual misconduct in the workplace; the scope of the probe was eventually expanded into scrutinizing the organization’s financial improprieties once that came to light.
The report’s release wasn’t a surprise; White was in Minneapolis on Thursday to brief the other 31 owners on the investigation in the same meeting they unanimously approved Harris as their new brethren. But the findings were damning for Snyder, who will have to pay the highest fine in NFL history as a parting gift.
Here is what we know:
How much was Dan Snyder fined?
Snyder will pay $60 million – roughly 1% of the $6.05 billion he made from the sale of the team – following White’s findings and “all outstanding matters,” the league said.
“The conduct substantiated in Ms. White’s findings has no place in the NFL,” Goodell said in a statement. “We strive for workplaces that are safe, respectful and professional.”
HEFTY FINE: NFL fines Snyder $60 million after investigation into outgoing Commanders owner
The record for highest fine in league history that Snyder broke was his own. As a result of attorney Beth Wilkinson’s investigation that ended in 2021, Snyder was handed a $10 million fine and barred from the team’s day-to-day operations for a year.
Who were main whistleblowers in the Mary Jo White report?
Investigators interviewed 44 witnesses, some going through multiple rounds of questioning. All former club employees were released from their non-disclosure agreements. Tens of thousands of documents (emails, texts, club contracts, calendars) were reviewed. A forensic accounting firm aided the probe.
There were two primary witnesses, however, who testified to White’s team that allowed investigators to substantiate claims:
- Tiffani Johnston: a marketing and events coordinator who was also a cheerleader for Washington from 2000-2008. During a Congressional roundtable held by the House Oversight Committee investigating allegations related to the “workplace culture” at the Commanders in February 2022, she testified that Snyder had inappropriately touched her at a work-related dinner and also attempted to push her into the back of his car later that night. Additionally, she told the committee that a senior executive had taken a calendar photo — which had not yet been edited to cover “personal areas” — to Snyder for viewing.
- Jason Friedman: a Washington employee from 1996 to 2020, he was the vice president of ticket sales and service when he was fired on Oct. 26, 2020. During an on-the-record interview with the House Oversight Committee in March 2022, he asserted that the Commanders intentionally shielded and withheld shareable revenues, including forfeited security deposits, from the NFL.
Dan Snyder sexually harassed team employee
Once Johnston’s claims became public in February 2022, Snyder publicly refuted it. However, the investigation substantiated both of Johnston’s assertions.
At the invitation and urging of then-Chief Financial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer Mitch Gershman, Johnston attended a post-networking event dinner at the Oceanaire Seafood Room in Washington D.C. sometime in the spring of 2005 or 2006. She was the lone woman at a table that included Snyder, whom she sat next to, Gershman, Friedman, a former Commanders’ senior vice president, and one or two other men, per the report.
After Snyder placed his hand on her thigh during the dinner, he tried to convince Johnston to join him upon their exit from the restaurant. Explaining that she had driven herself, Snyder pushed her toward the back seat of his vehicle. Johnston testified she then heard someone who identified himself as Snyder’s attorney say “in words to the effect: ‘Dan, Dan this is a bad idea. As your attorney, do not do this.’ At this point, Ms. Johnston managed to get away from Mr. Snyder and left.”
On the night Johnston’s congressional testimony was publicized, Gershman texted Friedman asking if he was at that dinner asking whether he was there.
“You and I were both at that dinner,” Friedman responded.
Four witnesses recalled to investigators that Johnston had told them about this incident shortly after it occurred, and the description was consistent of her Congressional testimony and what she provided to investigators.
“What Ms. Johnston experienced is inappropriate and contrary to the NFL’s values,” Goodell said.
Probe confirmed inappropriate photo of Johnston taken, but Snyder’s role unclear
A former senior team executive improperly took and viewed an unedited calendar photograph of Johnston, the report concluded. The evidence, according to the investigating team, demonstrated that Snyder did not necessarily see the photograph or direct that it should be brought to him.
Tiffani Johnston, Jason Friedman found credible by investigators
Friedman’s independent recollection of the dinner and Snyder’s attempt to lure Johnston into his vehicle aided in investigators substantiating Johnston’s claims against Snyder.
White and her team spoke to Johnston several times and found her “highly credible.”
“While some details of Mr. Friedman’s recollection of the incident are not entirely consistent with Ms. Johnston’s, we regard such differences in recollection of a dated event as normal, expected variations in memory and ultimately adding to both witnesses’ credibility,” the report said.
Investigation said team hid revenues from NFL
The investigation found that the team hid at least $11 million in revenues that should have been shared with the rest of the league. The team would improperly classify NFL revenues as non-shareable revenues from special events, such as concerts, college football games, or soccer games. For example, communications from July 2010 revealed that $17,773 the team received for a sponsor hospitality tent could be categorized under a Virginia Tech football game, even though the college was mentioned nowhere in the contract.
OPINION: Dan Snyder’s NFL legacy: An owner who did wrong at every turn
Between 2009 and 2015, an additional $44.49 million of ticket, parking, license and other revenues originally identified as holding NFL-related revenues appears to have been transferred to non-shareable special events accounts, the report said.
Witness recollections were corroborated by contemporaneous emails that “reflect recognition of wrongdoing.” A senior executive replied “its [sic] fine” to redirecting revenues into non-shareable streams.
The report stated: “Employees knew this was not right, we were told, but senior executives seemed to excuse the Club’s deliberately underreported revenue to the League because ‘it’s the NFL’ and not the government.”
Included in the report was evidence of a senior employee emailing the CFO “if the NFL had a jail … we’d be in it.”
White’s team was able to corroborate Friedman’s claims using documentary evidence, witness interviews admissions by the team. Per the available evidence, the investigation neither found nor ruled out that Snyder participated in the “improper shielding of revenues.”
Commanders did not pay fans back: report
For at least a decade, Washington failed to return security deposits for club or suite season ticket holders or remit unclaimed deposits. The club still holds $1.9 million in inactive accounts, according to the report. Investigators did not recommend further work in this part of the probe, however: “even if the Commanders did not share any revenue from security deposits taken into Club income from 1999 to present, the League would have been deprived of approximately $1.68 million in (Visiting Team’s Share) spread over 20 years.”
Snyder was in the middle of it all.
“Snyder, known for his hands-on management and close monitoring of the Club’s finances, was aware of and supportive of the Club’s efforts to minimize its revenue sharing obligations,” the report concluded.
How Commanders, Dan Snyder obstructed investigation
Repeatedly over the 23 pages, the report mentions the lack of cooperation from Washington and how their unwillingness impacted their findings.
Snyder rescheduled and canceled his interviews over a period of months, finally sitting for one on June 29. The team also denied all requests to speak to external auditors.
“With full information, this report may have drawn additional or different conclusions,” investigators wrote. “We are nevertheless confident that the findings are supported by the evidence obtained during the Investigation.”
How was Mary Jo White report different from Beth Wilkinson investigation?
White, a former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, was appointed to lead the investigation with her colleagues from law firm Debevoise & Plimpton in February 2022, shortly after Johnston’s testimony.
“We appreciate the diligence, thoroughness and professionalism of Ms. White and her team throughout this process,” Goodell said.
It was the second time the league assigned someone to look into Snyder and Washington for malevolent workplace culture. In 2020, the team hired Beth Wilkinson to look into the matter before the league
The key difference between the White and Wilkinson probes is the existence of a written report. Wilkinson’s findings were presented orally and not released publicly.
Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.
