Dan Snyder fined $60 million for sexual harassment, withholding revenue from NFL
Minutes after the NFL announced the sale of the Washington Commanders, the league released the findings of a months-long investigation corroborating allegations of sexual harassment against now-former owner Dan Snyder and allegations the club withheld revenue from the league, fining the now-former owner $60 million.
Following the 17-month-long inquiry by attorney Mary Jo White, the league said it “substantiated” claims that the Commanders had hidden revenue that should have been shared with the other franchises and that Snyder had sexually harassed former team employee Tiffani Johnston.
“The conduct substantiated in Ms. White’s findings has no place in the NFL,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “We strive for workplaces that are safe, respectful and professional. What Ms. Johnston experienced is inappropriate and contrary to the NFL’s values.”
Johnston, a former cheerleader and marketing employee, claimed that Snyder had inappropriately touched her during a work dinner and then tried to press her toward his limo in 2005 or 2006.
Snyder had denied the claims and called them “outright lies.”
However, the report found Johnston’s allegations credible, noting that four witnesses recalled Johnston telling them about the incident, which she later testified about before Congress.
“We credit Ms. Johnston’s account that Mr. Snyder put his hand on her thigh under the restaurant table (which she removed without comment) and pushed her towards his car after a work-related dinner, and that Ms. Johnston did not consent, in any way, to Mr. Snyder’s actions,” part of the 22-page report read.
White, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, further substantiated claims that an ex-team executive took and viewed an unedited cheerleader calendar photo, but couldn’t link Snyder to the incident.
The report also confirmed the claims of former team vice president of sales and customer service Jason Friedman that the team was hiding revenue.
The league found that the club had as much as an additional $44 million of revenue that was moved from shareable to non-sharable accounts.
The report could not rule that Snyder himself directed or participated in the hiding of the revenue.
“Mr. Friedman’s allegations that the Club intentionally shielded and withheld an amount of shareable NFL revenues in violation of NFL policies, including forfeited security deposits, are sustained. Certain former senior executives had knowledge of and directed this conduct,” the report read.
Damming was the picture the report painted of Snyder and the organization, which is said to have failed to cooperate with the investigation.
“Despite that pledge, Mr. Snyder and the Club failed to cooperate. Mr. Snyder, for nearly a year, refused to be interviewed and, when he did finally agree to an interview, he declared that it would be limited to one hour,” the report added.
“Similarly, the Club refused, for many months, to search for and produce critical documents necessary to understand unexplained transfers involving tens of millions of dollars identified by the Investigation from the Club’s financial records appearing to reflect the reclassification of a significant amount of potentially shareable NFL revenues to non-shareable accounts.”
Despite the attempted roadblocks, White and her team expressed confidence in the findings of the report.
The investigation included interviews with dozens of witnesses, a review of over 10,000 documents and assistance from a team of forensic accountants, the league said.
