Frank McCourt Under Investigation for Financial Misconduct While Owning Dodgers

Former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt may have sold his team, but a federal grand jury is now investigating his actions while in charge for possible criminal financial misconduct of the team, according to the Los Angeles Daily Journal (via the Los Angeles Times).

The report states that authorities have asked for documents from representatives of both McCourts, with the focus of the investigation on the accounting and propriety of the team's spending.

When the incredibly public divorce of Frank and his wife, Jamie, played out for everybody to see, the financial records of the Dodgers were on full display. Testimony pulled back the curtain on some of the outrageous financial decisions Frank was making.

Examples include paying his two sons a combined $600,000 annually, although one was employed by Goldman Sachs and the other was a student at Stanford University. One of McCourt’s financial advisors testified that he treated the Dodgers and his other businesses like a “credit card.”

Major League Baseball accused McCourt of “looting” $198 million from the team for personal use. His attorneys have vehemently denied the allegations, calling them “inflammatory and unsupportable.”

MLB commissioner Bud Selig also sent McCourt a letter last year to inform him the IRS was investigating his tax returns from 2006-08.

These are just a few of the accusations that have been thrown in McCourt’s direction regarding financial misconduct while owning the Dodgers.

Like all of his other legal battles, McCourt isn’t going down without a fight. According to LA Observed, he has hired lawyer David Scheper, the former chief of the criminal division in the U.S. attorney’s office, to represent him.

With all of the evidence piling up against him, it’s hard to see anybody getting McCourt out of this one. 

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