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The Washington Commanders reached a $1.3 million settlement with Virginia’s attorney general as a result of a two-year investigation into how the franchise handled the return of season-ticket deposits.
Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a statement that the settlement requires the organization to pay more than $600,000 in deposits plus another $700,000 in penalties and “investigative costs.”
Miyares’ office began investigating in Washington on April 25, 2022, after information was relayed during a congressional investigation into possible financial irregularities imposed by a former employee that included how the team handled the return of ticket deposits. seasonal.
The events occurred when Dan Snyder was the owner of the franchise; He sold the team last July to a group led by Josh Harris. A team source said they provided business, financial and accounting documents to the attorney general and updated that office with the findings of their own internal investigation.
Miyares said they worked with Harris’ group, pointing out where previous owners had “defaulted” on refunding deposits. Miyares said the new ownership group was helpful.
“This was a problem that the current owners did not create, they inherited it, but I appreciate the fact that they were willing to talk and resolve it instead of going through what probably would have been several years of litigation,” Miyares said. “From our point of view, it was clear that many of the subscribers were treated simply as a commodity. Nothing surprises us anymore, but it was certainly a rather brazen act.”
A spokesperson for the team said: “We are pleased that this agreement has been reached to resolve issues that occurred under previous ownership.”
According to a statement, the investigation found that Washington “illegally withheld significant sums of security deposits, often imposing additional conditions on consumers who requested refunds.” It also found that in 2014 the team sent approximately 650 form letters to former season ticket holders who had unrefunded security deposits. But, according to the report, Washington did not “remit a single unclaimed security deposit to a state unclaimed property office, including the Virginia Department of the Treasury, until at least 2023.”
Commanders must attempt to refund all remaining security deposits in inactive accounts or remit unclaimed property to state departments in accordance with state law. Commanders must refund security deposits on file within 30 days of the contract expiration date. The Commanders must pay the Commonwealth $600,000 in civil penalties and another $100,000 to the attorney general’s office for attorney fees and costs associated with the investigation.
“We’re glad this is resolved,” Miyares said. “When corporate actors behave badly, when there are bad corporate actors, we’re going to protect consumers. We’re going to hold them accountable. And that’s exactly what we did here.”
In April 2023, the Commanders reached a settlement with the D.C. attorney general’s office over the same issue, agreeing to pay $200,000 to the fans and $425,000 to the district.
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