Tag: Lawsuit

Michael Irvin responds publicly, emotionally to Super Bowl hotel incident

The ex-Cowboys WR compared his current situation to a modern-day lynching, saying he doesn’t even know what he’s being accused of. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Michael Irvin has now gone on the offensive in defending himself against allegations made by a Phoenix hotel employee in early February.

The former Cowboys wide receiver held a press conference Wednesday morning where he spoke publicly for the first time about the alleged incident that got him booted from NFL Network’s Super Bowl Week coverage.

A clearly emotional Irvin talked about what he maintains are false allegations that have seriously damaged his reputation, adversely affected his livelihood, negatively impacted his family, and caused the Hall of Famer to reconsider how he deals with fans and the general public moving forward.

Levi McCathern, Irvin’s attorney in the matter, recapped the events that took place Feb. 5 at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown, where Irvin was staying while covering Super Bowl LVII in nearby Glendale. A female employee of the hotel claimed that the three-time Super Bowl champ made “harassing and inappropriate comments” after briefly meeting Irvin in the lobby.

“The allegations are nonsense,” McCathern said Wednesday.

Irvin and his legal team filed a $100 million lawsuit against the woman and Marriott, the parent company of the hotel, in response.

Despite court orders, Marriott still has not provided Irvin with the hotel’s surveillance video of the encounter or even met with Irvin to discuss the details of the claims.

McCathern says he was allowed to view the footage, but only under close supervision.

He described the encounter, which he says lasted just over a minute. While the initial meeting occurred just behind a pillar in the lobby and shielded fom the camera’s view, McCathern says Irvin can be seen shaking the woman’s hand, touching her twice on the elbow as they spoke, and then shaking hands again as they part ways.

“She never acts upset,” McCathern said of the woman’s overall body language as seen on tape. “She doesn’t act like there’s any problem at all.”

Irvin’s attorneys say they have filed an emergency motion to have the video released.

“I haven’t seen this tape,” Irvin said. “I want to see what I’m being accused of, why I’ve had to put my whole life on hold, why family’s had to endure it. If I did something wrong, I’ll suffer the consequences of me doing something wrong. But if you did something wrong- you meaning them- then they should suffer the consequences of what they did wrong.”

He went on to paint a stark picture of what it’s been like to be on the receiving end of such serious allegations, with no evidence presented and no chance to properly defend himself.

“This sickens me,” the 57-year-old said. “In this great country, this takes me back to a time where a white woman would accuse a Black man of something. And they would take a bunch of guys that were above the law, run in the barn, put a rope around his foot, and drag him through the mud, and hang him by the tree. Not a thought about what would happen, not an investigation, not after repeated attempts of people trying to go and say, ‘Guys, here’s what really happened.'”

Two witnesses to the lobby encounter, men who had met Irvin for the first time just minutes earlier that night, joined the press conference via Zoom. They corroborated Irvin’s version of events: that his meeting with the woman was very brief, seemed quite amicable, and made no lasting impression on them until after reports broke days later that a claim of wrongdoing had been made against the Cowboys star.

Irvin says he is now left wondering how to best interact with fans that he meets in public after this incident.

“I’ve always tried to be good with people,” he said tearfully before exiting the press conference. “I’m struggling now, saying, ‘Do I not talk to people? What do I do?’ because of this kind of a situation. I know I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Irvin acknowledged that without the two men he had just met in the hotel also coming forward in his defense, it would now be his word against the female employee’s.

And he knows that might play very differently in the court of public opinion.

“This just blows my mind, that in 2023, we’re still dragging and hanging brothers by the tree. That blows my mind,” Irvin said, “that I have no opportunity to defend- I don’t even know what I’m defending.”

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Jerry Jones to face sexual assault lawsuit in formerly dismissed case

Jones is accused of forcibly kissing and groping a woman at AT&T Stadium in 2018; the revived case is could to go trial. | From @ToddBrock24f7

A 2020 lawsuit against Jerry Jones that had previously been dismissed has been given new life, and it’s likely to bring the Cowboys owner to trial to face troubling new accusations of sexual assault.

The case in question was first dismissed by a Dallas County district court in February 2022. But according to Lana Ferguson of the Dallas Morning News, a Texas appellate court has revived the case and ruled that it should proceed.

At the center of the case is an encounter that allegedly took place at AT&T Stadium on Sept. 16, 2018, the same date as a Cowboys’ 20-13 Week 2 win over the New York Giants in a Sunday night matchup. A woman claims Jones, who would have been 75 years old at the time, “kissed her on the mouth and forcibly grabbed her without her consent.”

Several prominent personalities well-known to Cowboys fans are named elsewhere as possible witnesses.

The Dallas Cowboys Football Club is also a defendant in the lawsuit, which claims the team “knew or should have known of Jones’s misconduct.” The National Football League was listed in the original lawsuit but is not named in the new appeal.

The lawsuit was dismissed last year after the judge claimed the woman- identified only as “Jane Doe” in the original case paperwork- failed to provide “fully identifying information” about herself and a more specific location for the incident. Those details, Jones’s legal team argued, were needed in order to make the lawsuit valid.

The state appellate court has found that the woman, in fact, “made a good faith effort to amend her pleadings” by providing that information upon request. They reversed the earlier dismissal, stating that the trial court “abused its discretion in dismissing” the claims.

In the revised complaint, the woman (whose identity is known to Jones’s attorneys) is now listed by the initials “J.G.” and the incident in question is described as having taken place inside the stadium’s Tom Landry Room, a luxurious suite where gameday meet-and-greet events are often held.

Per League of Justice‘s Amy Dash, J.G. accuses Jones of “sticking his tongue in her mouth and forcibly grabbing and groping her.” The suit claims the room was full of witnesses; J.G. believes those who were present include former head coach Jason Garrett, running back Ezekiel Elliott, offensive lineman Tyron Smith, and ex-defensive end Tyrone Crawford.

Current Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence and Jones’s wife Eugenia are allegedly listed as also being present in the room when the assault occurred.

The incident caused J.G. “severe injuries,” “emotional distress,” “psychological pain and suffering,” and medical expenses, according to the suit.

“Plaintiff has nightmares about what Jerry Jones did to her,” read the original complaint. “She has trouble focusing and completing day to day tasks at work and at home. Plaintiff gets nervous around men and has trouble being alone with men. Plaintiff cries often because of what Defendant Jerry Jones did to her and does not want any other woman to experience such assaults.”

J.G. is reportedly seeking monetary damages of over one million dollars and wants a jury trial to decide the matter.

“Jerry Jones has a sleazy history of allegedly sexually assaulting and assaulting females, and it appears that both the Cowboys and NFL have turned a blind eye to said illegal behavior over the years,” her original complaint continues.

A response from Jones called the allegations “malicious and hurtful.”

The Cowboys owner is currently in another legal battle, having been ordered to take a paternity test to determine if he is the biological father of a Texas woman named Alexandra Davis, who sued him last year.

The Davis case is ongoing.

The J.G. case could go to trial after all, now that last year’s dismissal has been reversed.

“We always knew we were going to win because the law was on our side,” said Thomas Daniel Bowers, the attorney for Jones’s latest accuser. “A victim’s finally going to get her day in court, and that’s very important.”

Bowers also represented Jana Weckerly, who accused Jones of sexual assault in 2009. Weckerly said Jones threatened her and tried to make hush-money payments to keep her quiet about that well-publicized incident, which included racy photos leaked on the internet. Jones’s attorneys called those allegations a “shakedown by a lawyer who is a solo practitioner just trying to make a name for himself.”

The Weckerly case was ultimately settled.

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Judge rules PGA Tour can add Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan as defendants in LIV Golf countersuit

The hits keep coming for LIV Golf and the Public Investment Fund in U.S. federal court.

The hits keep coming for LIV Golf and the Public Investment Fund in U.S. federal court.

Last week a judge ruled against the “sovereign immunity” claim by the PIF and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, a serious blow to LIV and its financial backer in its antitrust case against the PGA Tour.

On Tuesday, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled the PGA Tour will be able to add the PIF and Al-Rumayyan as defendants in its countersuit against LIV, dragging the financiers deeper into the judicial weeds.

The original lawsuit was filed in August by Phil Mickelson and went on to include 10 other golfers, but has since been taken over by LIV Golf, which is almost exclusively financed by the PIF (aside from its newly announced first global partner). The wealth fund, organized in 1971 as a means for the Saudi Arabian government to invest in various projects and companies, has been estimated to be worth over $650 billion.

LIV Golf has long been criticized as a way for the Kingdom to sportswash its human rights record with guaranteed money and multi-million dollar deals. Saudi Arabia has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. And members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.

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Judge orders Marriott to turn over video, accuser’s identity in Michael Irvin’s $100M defamation lawsuit

Witnesses corroborate Irvin’s story about his interaction with a hotel employee; the hotel chain has until Monday to provide their evidence. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Michael Irvin remains in the dark about exactly why he was pulled off the air from Super Bowl coverage for NFL Network and ESPN last week.

But a judge in the former wide receiver’s $100 million defamation lawsuit in the matter has ordered the Marriott hotel chain to turn over video recordings and other details in hopes of shedding some light on the allegations.

Irvin was sent home from the site of Super Bowl LVII following a complaint lodged with the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown. Irvin maintains that on Feb. 5, he had a brief and amicable conversation with a woman in the hotel lobby, shook her hand, and then went to his room alone.

The woman, who has since been revealed to be an employee of the hotel, complained to management about her interaction with the Hall of Famer. Hotel security then woke Irvin in his room, his lawsuit claims. They escorted him from the property “without any explanation or questions,” and notified the NFL of the situation.

After being excluded from the remainder of Super Bowl Week coverage by NFL Network, Irvin filed a nine-figure lawsuit against the parent company of the hotel as well as the woman, who he claims he had never seen before and has not seen since the incident.

Irvin’s lawsuit accuses the two parties of defamation as well as wrongful interference in a business relationship. The 56-year-old Cowboys icon claims he suffered damage to his reputation and lost out on added income from personal appearances that had to be scrapped as a result of his removal from the airwaves.

Irvin argues he is being “railroaded” as a target of “cancel culture.”

The three-time Super Bowl champ maintains that the interaction with the woman identified in the lawsuit as “Jane Doe” was in no way physical beyond a handshake, though he admits that he doesn’t remember exactly what was said, as he had been out drinking. Video recordings from the lobby apparently captured the meeting, but Irvin said they were not shown to him; he also has not been told what he supposedly said to the woman.

Local police officials have said no official criminal complaints against Irvin were filed. Representatives for Irvin attempted to speak with the hotel directly about the allegations and provide witnesses to resolve the matter, but those efforts were rebuffed by the Renaissance.

Marriott has, this week, banned Irvin from all its properties, according to the lawsuit.

The Collin County (Tex.) judge in the case has ordered Marriott to submit all video recordings, written reports, and witness statements regarding the incident. They must also provide the name and contact information of the female employee as well as any employers or managers who contacted the league about the episode, and even the names of the league employees who received the original complaints.

The evidence that has already come to light seems to back up Irvin’s version of events.

According to the Dallas Morning News, three witnesses have said they saw the encounter and have even provided photos and videos pinpointing when Irvin’s conversation with the woman happened.

Bryn Davis, Joe Manuele, and Phil Watkins were in the Renaissance bar when they saw Irvin in the lobby with former Cowboys player Michael Brooks. The business associates say the two ex-players were speaking with some fans.

After offering to buy Irvin a drink (which he declined), the four men chatted. The men asked for a group photo; Irvin requested that they all go outside to do so. Those photos were timestamped as having been taken at 11:08 p.m.

Upon re-entering the lobby, Davis says he saw a female employee of the hotel approach Irvin as he walked toward the elevator and start a conversation. The encounter, he says, appeared completely normal and involved no physical contact beyond their parting handshake.

“It was very distinct,” Davis told the DMN. “I remember where his hands were, because I remember thinking he was in good shape for an almost 60-year-old guy. He leaned over, shook her hand, and I am telling you right now: That conversation was [about] 30 seconds. If it was a minute, I would be shocked. I think 30 seconds. Just a normal back-and-forth. … Michael walks toward the elevator. She goes back into the restaurant, and everything is as normal as could possibly be. And that’s it.”

Watkins corroborates that account.

“It was a positive, friendly conversation,” the Australian told TMZ. “They had a brief interaction- it was 30, 40 seconds- he kept his distance at all times, stood about a meter away from her, they ended with a handshake, and he literally turned around and went back to the lift.”

Watkins says he neither saw nor heard anything that led him to believe something inappropriate had taken place.

“There was a little bit of laughter. Obviously, a jovial conversation,” he explained. “Nothing untoward for me to actually take notice of what was going on. … She turned around after the conversation, she went back into the bar area or around the bar area, and everyone continued their evening.”

Davis said it was only later in the week, when the woman’s complaint was first reported, that he realized he and his friends had witnessed the event that was making headlines.

“I felt sick when I saw it,” he told TMZ, “because it’s the first time I was ever, firsthand experience where something like that happened that was just fabricated. It was a totally normal conversation.”

Davis even pointed out that none of the men are Cowboys fans and would have no reason to defend him if he were in the wrong.

“I’ll say this, man,” he continued. “I’m from Philadelphia. I grew up and Michael was our enemy. But he’s a super, super, super nice guy, and that’s why I felt like I needed to say something- only because he’s a good dude and to have that happen and have your livelihood or career taken is crazy. It’s not fair, so it was worth coming out and saying something.”

Marriott has been given a deadline of Feb. 20 to comply with the judge’s order to submit materials in the case.

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Report: Michael Irvin files $100M lawsuit against accuser, hotel over misconduct claims

The ex-Cowboy says he is being “railroaded” as a victim of “cancel culture” and that he has witnesses who back up his version of events. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The Playmaker may have been benched from NFL Network’s coverage of Super Bowl Week from Glendale, but he’s not accepting the punishment without a counter move.

On Thursday, former Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin filed a $100 million lawsuit against the woman who filed a complaint against him earlier in the week, as well as the parent company of the hotel where the misconduct allegedly occurred. The Hall of Famer says he is being “railroaded” as a target of “cancel culture.”

Irvin was removed from the week’s scheduled programming and sent home after an unknown woman complained to the hotel about the 56-year old ex-player. Irvin acknowledges that he met a woman Sunday night in the lobby  of the Renaissance Hotel and maintains that he had “a 45-second conversation” with her there.

But he says network representatives confronted him with a different version of events the next day.

“I guess the girl said I said something to her within that minute that we talked,” he explained.

Now he is firing back with a nine-figure lawsuit.

The suit, according to TMZ Sports, reads, in part:

“Rash and thoughtless actions can have severe consequences. Marriott [the parent company of Renaissance Hotels] apparently did not appreciate these simple truths when, in a rush to judgment, its employees and management inaccurately and inflammatorily accused Mr. Irvin of misconduct to the National Football League.”

Irvin provided eyewitnesses who reportedly corroborated his version of events, but “they say the Renaissance refused to listen,” per TMZ.

“In fact, the lawsuit accuses the hotel manager of reporting the alleged incident to the NFL ‘with the intention of damaging that relationship and canceling [Irvin].'”

The $100 million figure in the lawsuit comes from Irvin’s now-damaged reputation, according to his legal team, as well as earnings lost from other appearances in Glendale that had to be canceled as a result of the allegations.

“It is clear Michael is the latest victim of our cancel culture where all it takes is an accusation to ruin a person’s life,” Irvin’s lawyer said in a statement issued to TMZ. “Michael looks forward to clearing his name in court and hopes the court of public opinion will see the truth come out as well.”

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LIV Golf lawyers admit to ‘virtually zero’ revenue in 2022 in latest court filing

Earlier this week, Tour lawyers provided four reasons to delay the current trial date, extend the discovery schedule.

After spending more than $700 million to attract talent and produce its product in 2022, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that LIV Golf made little to no money in its inaugural year.

The upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and financially supported by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is currently locked in a high-stakes antitrust lawsuit with the PGA Tour. A motion filed Monday with the U.S. District Court for Northern California saw LIV lawyers admit to “virtually zero” revenue in 2022 in an argument against the Tour, which wishes to add PIF and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, as plaintiffs in a countersuit against LIV.

Earlier this week PGA Tour lawyers provided four reasons to delay the current trial date and extend the discovery schedule for the ongoing antitrust lawsuit, a move deemed to be “exploiting litigation” by LIV Golf lawyers.

U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman is overseeing the trial that is currently set for January 2024. The deadline to complete document discovery is March 30. The fact discovery deadline is May 26. Freeman will hear the arguments for and against delay on Feb. 24.

“The Tour’s motion to amend should be denied because the amendment would be futile, would cause unfair prejudice, was unduly delayed, and is obviously intended to inappropriately delay the case and resolution of Plaintiffs’ antitrust claims,” wrote LIV’s attorneys. “Delay will equally harm LIV because the Tour continues its anticompetitive conduct while the litigation is pending. The Tour has damaged LIV’s brand, driven up its costs by hundreds of millions of dollars, and driven down revenues to virtually zero.”

Eleven LIV Golf players, including Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour in August of last year. Over the last six months, players have joined and dropped from the suit, and now just LIV Golf, DeChambeau, Matt Jones and Peter Uihlein remain.

In a meeting with select members of the media during its team championship last October, LIV Golf officials laid out some plans for the future and how it was going all in on the team format. The aim is for a business model that would eventually be similar to that of the NFL and other major team sports, with hopes that franchising its teams will create a revenue stream that LIV currently doesn’t possess.

Former Chief Operating Officer Atul Khosla, who has since left his position with LIV, said a successful 2023 would see 12 established teams and brands, as well as a commercialized product.

“We’ve got to get on TV, we’ve got to have corporate partners,” Khosla explained in October. “Those are successful things that we need, those are sort of milestones that we need to hit go into next year.”

LIV announced a multiyear broadcast agreement with the CW network last month, though the deal is reportedly a revenue-share where LIV won’t receive rights fees and continues to cover production costs.

LIV will return to action with the debut event of its re-branded 14-event league later this month at Mayakoba’s El Camaleón Golf Course on the Riviera Maya, Feb. 24-26.

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LIV Golf lawyers argue PGA Tour is ‘exploiting litigation’ after request to delay antitrust trial, discovery schedule

LIV Golf lawyers said “the Tour is exploiting litigation delay to choke off air to LIV and players” in a joint motion.

Lawyers for both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf filed a joint motion Sunday to the U.S. District Court for Northern California to ask for a case management conference to discuss delaying the current trial date and extending the discovery schedule for the ongoing antitrust lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman is overseeing the trial that is currently set for January 2024. The deadline to complete document discovery is March 30. The fact discovery deadline is May 26.

Lawyers for the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and financially supported by the Public Investment Fund argued “the Tour is exploiting litigation delay to choke off air to LIV and players” and that the current timeframes are “not only workable, but critical to the careers of the Player Plaintiffs and the viability of LIV as a legitimate competitor to the Tour.”

Eleven LIV Golf players, including Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour in August of last year. Over the last six months, players have joined and dropped from the suit, and now just LIV Golf, DeChambeau, Matt Jones and Peter Uihlein remain.

https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2022/08/03/11-liv-golfers-lawsuit-pga-tour/

The PGA Tour’s argument centers around four key reasons. From the joint motion:

  • First, the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (“PIF”) and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, continue to resist compliance with the Tour’s subpoenas for documents and testimony, a dispute that remains unresolved and which will likely lead to an appeal.
  • Second, the Tour has sought leave to amend its counterclaims to add PIF and Mr. Al-Rumayyan as counterdefendants, because recently produced documents show that they played a central role in tortiously interfering with the Tour’s contracts.
  • Third, LIV, the current and former player plaintiffs, and several third parties have failed to produce key documents and, in some cases, have failed to produce documents at all.
  • Fourth, the nature of this case has significantly evolved since the Court set the current January 2024 trial date, from a case about individual golfers to a case about two competing golf leagues, substantially undermining Plaintiffs’ stated basis for an expedited case schedule.

“Given the present status of discovery (or lack thereof) from PIF and Mr. Al-Rumayyan in particular, it is not realistic for the parties to meet the current deadlines,” the Tour lawyers wrote. “In fact, PIF and Mr. Al-Rumayyan have already signaled that they are unlikely to comply with any order from this Court compelling them to provide discovery, instead indicating that they will pursue their meritless defenses through lengthy appeals.”

While the 2022 season as all about player movement, the discussion for 2023 will largely center around the various lawsuits in play. Aside from the aforementioned antitrust lawsuit, Patrick Reed has sued numerous media members and entities for defamation and a case involving LIV Golf players and the DP World Tour began in London on Monday that will clarify whether LIV players can play in DP World Tour events.

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LIV Golf: Patrick Reed’s $750 million defamation lawsuit dismissed in Florida court

Reed’s attorneys will have until Dec. 16 to file an amended complaint.

Patrick Reed’s $750 million defamation lawsuit, which was originally filed Aug. 16 in Texas and eventually refiled in Florida the next month, has been dismissed.

The lawsuit alleged conspiracy, defamation, injurious falsehood and tortious interference and that the defenders have acted “in concert as joint tortfeasors.” The defendents included Golfweek and its parent company, Eamon Lynch, a Golfweek columnist, Golf Channel and its employees Brandel Chamblee, Damon Hack and Shane Bacon.

Larry Klayman, Reed’s attorney, earlier stated, “The PGA Tour’s and its ‘partner’ the NBC’s Golf Channel’s mission is to destroy a top LIV Golf Tour player, his family, as well as all of the LIV Golf players, to further their agenda and alleged collaborative efforts to destroy the new LIV Golf Tour. As alleged in the Complaint, these calculated malicious attacks have created hate, aided and abetted a hostile workplace environment, and have caused substantial financial and emotional damage and harm to Mr. Reed and his family.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan dismissed the original complaint Friday, according to court records. In his order to dismiss, Corrigan states, “Reed’s Complaint does not cleanly fit into one of the four types of shotgun pleadings; however, it fails to give Defendants notice of the grounds upon which each claim rests because Reed alleges 120 factual allegations, then proceeds to incorporate all 120 allegations into each and every count. … Reed attempts to allege various defamation and civil conspiracy violations against each Defendant; causes of action which require vastly different factual allegations.”

Reed’s attorneys will have until Dec. 16 to file an amended complaint in conjunction with the judge’s orders.

Earlier this month, Klayman filed a new $250 million suit against a number of other prominent golf media members and organizations, including author Shane Ryan, Hachette, the New York Post and Fox Sports, as well as Associated Press golf writer Doug Ferguson and the organization for whom he works.

Klayman announced the filing of a Second Amended Class Action Complaint in Palm Beach County’s 15th Judicial Circuit on Monday which alleges antitrust conspiracy to restrain trade and harm golf fans in the state of Florida, as well as “eliminate LIV Golf in its infancy.”

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Washington D.C. attorney general sues Commanders for allegedly cheating fans out of ticket money

D.C. attorney general Karl Racine announces a second lawsuit against the Washington Commanders.

One day after a ranking member of the House Oversight Committee said the investigation into the Washington Commanders and owner Daniel Snyder was “over,” there’s more trouble for the NFL franchise.

Washington D.C. attorney general Karl Racine announced a second lawsuit against the Commanders stating the team is guilty of “implementing an illegal scheme to cheat District ticket holders out of their deposits for season tickets and use the money for its own purposes.”

This is a separate consumer protection lawsuit from the one Racine filed against Snyder, the Commanders, the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell last week regarding the organization’s toxic workplace.

The suit alleges that the Commanders hold “nearly $200,000 in unreturned security deposits” paid by D.C. residents.

The Commanders offered the following response from a team spokesperson:

The Team has not accepted security deposits for over 20 years in the case of premium tickets and over a decade in the case of suites, and we began returning them to season ticket holders as early as 2004.  In 2014, as part of a comprehensive review, Team management was instructed to send notices to over 1,400 customers with deposits and return all security deposits requested.

Further, the team engaged an outside law firm and forensic auditors to conduct an extensive review of the team’s accounts which found no evidence that the team intentionally withheld security deposits that should have been returned to customers or that the team improperly converted any unclaimed deposits to revenue.

Racine offered a link to the complaint on Twitter:

Earlier this month, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia opened a criminal investigation into the team’s alleged financial impropreities.

The NFL’s investigation into Snyder and the Commanders remains ongoing.

Trevor Lawrence among athletes, celebrities sued for FTX crypto collapse

Trevor Lawrence is facing a lawsuit for his partnership with now-bankrupt FTX.

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence was one of several athletes and celebrities named in a class action lawsuit filed Tuesday that seeks damages stemming from the collapse and bankruptcy of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

Lawrence — and a list of other defendants that includes Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Shaquille O’Neal, and Shohei Ohtani — are accused of not disclosing “the nature, scope, and amount of compensation” they received to promote FTX and not performing “any due diligence” before marketing FTX products to the public.

FTX was founded in 2019 and was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in 2021, but filed for bankruptcy earlier this month.

Lawrence, 23, signed a multiyear sponsorship with FTX (known as Blockfolio at the time) days ahead of the 2021 NFL Draft when he was picked first overall by the Jaguars.

Earlier this year, there were reports that Lawrence took his entire $24 million signing bonus in cryptocurrency and lost about $15 million in the 2022 crash of the industry. But the Jaguars quarterback pushed back on those claims in a now-deleted tweet that said people were confusing his NFL signing bonus with the bonus he received for partnering with FTX.