Commanders reach settlement with Maryland AG over allegations of withholding ticket deposits

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The Maryland Attorney General’s office has reached a settlement with the Washington Commanders after the team was accused of failing to return security deposits to ticket holders, it announced Friday.

The settlement requires that the Commanders refund all remaining security deposits and pay a $250,000 fine.

Attorney General Brian Frosh alleges the team was meant to return security deposits collected from season and luxury suite ticket holders but failed to do so within the required 30 days. Instead. the team allegedly only returned deposits to ticket holders who made a written request, which is a violation of the Consumer Protection Act.

“For many years, the Commanders kept money that was not theirs. It belongs to their customers,” Attorney General Frosh said. “Today’s settlement will require the team to return the monies owed to consumers. The Commanders will pay a penalty, and they will be enjoined from engaging in similar practices in the future.”

The settlement does not clear the Commanders of separate litigation stemming from the allegations.

DC Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced on Thursday that his office is also suing the Commanders for the alleged deposits scheme, in addition to a separate suit that was announced a week prior on Nov. 10.

Making sense of the Commanders’ suits

In 2020 over 40 women, including former employees and cheerleaders, came forward to accuse Snyder and Commanders executives of sexual misconduct. Commanders co-owner Dan Snyder himself initially hired an outside attorney to investigate, but that was soon taken over by Goodell and the NFL. The investigation determined that the Commanders fostered a hostile work environment for years, one that especially affected women and commonly included bullying, intimidation, and sexual harassment up through the top ranks of the organization. However, no written report was ever released.

Litigation about the alleged deposit scheme came as investigated the Congress Commanders for the workplace misconduct. Jason Friedman, the Commanders’ former longtime VP of sales and customer service tested in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform about the scheme in March, and turned over numerous spreadsheets and other documents. The committee wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission just one month later, accusing them of hiding revenue from the NFL for over a decade through withholding security deposits and the attorneys general of Maryland, DC and launched Virginia parallel investigations.

That investigation into the Commanders’ workplace misconduct is what triggered the DC attorney general’s Nov. 10 suit, which alleges that the Commanders, Dan Snyder, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and the NFL “colluded to deceive fans” by allegedly covering up all the workplace and sexual misconduct allegations against the team.

Dan Snyder is co-owner of the Washington Commanders. (Photo by John McDonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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