According to a new report from ESPN, three former minority owners of the Washington Commanders have accused Dan Snyder of committing bank fraud in securing a $55 million loan without board approval, and a federal grand jury is now looking into the allegation. And to make matters worse, it looks like Roger Goodell knew about all of it.
According to ESPN, Roger Goodell knew about the loan and the three partners asked the NFL and the commissioner to investigate the secret loan, but the league did not.
“During a confidential arbitration, the former partners demanded that the NFL investigate the origin of Snyder’s loan. But neither NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, whose signature granted league approval for the team to take on the new debt, nor the NFL arbitrator investigated the partners’ allegation of financial wrongdoing, according to hundreds of pages of confidential NFL arbitration documents obtained by ESPN and more than a dozen interviews,” Don Van Natta Jr. wrote for ESPN.
ESPN reports that Goodell knew about the loan, and even signed the loan’s confirmation agreement on the same day it was approved.
“Goodell knew about the loan,” a source with firsthand knowledge of the matter told ESPN, “but the partners didn’t.”
Despite numerous requests for Goodell and NFL general counsel Jeffrey Pash to investigate the loans, they refused, saying the minority owners’ only option was to reach an agreement to sell their shares to Snyder.
“Goodell and Pash were not interested in talking about those allegations or any allegations between the parties,” the source said.
It’s an absolute bombshell report, and the NFL world had plenty to say about it.
https://twitter.com/KT_So_It_Goes/status/1630550765109493761?s=20
It remains to be seen what sort of impact it might have on Goodell’s status as the league’s commissioner or the potential sale of the Washington Commanders franchise.
[ESPN]
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