Daniel Snyder was fined $60 million, the largest penalty ever levied against an NFL team owner, after he was found to have had sex with a former Washington Commanders cheerleader and marketing employee.
A league-sponsored investigation released Thursday found credible claims made by Tiffani Johnston, the team’s former employee, who said Snyder put his hand on her thigh without her permission. dinner at work in 2005 or 2006, and that he later tried to push her into the back seat of his car after the incident. According to the report, his account was supported by evidence and contemporaneous witnesses.
The findings were reported by Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor and chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who spent 17 months looking into allegations of widespread sexual harassment against executives at team, including Snyder, as well as claims of financial improprieties.
The NFL released White’s report immediately after 31 other clubs unanimously approved the sale of the Commanders to an investment group led by Josh Harris for $6.05 billion, a record for a American pro sports team.
“The conduct evidenced by 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 was inappropriate and contrary to the values of the NFL.”
White’s report also corroborates claims made by a former Washington ticket executive, Jason Friedman, who said the team intentionally protected and withheld revenue that was intended to be split among the 32 teams. league team. According to the report, about $11 million in shareable revenues was confirmed to have been improperly withheld.
The investigators wrote that they could not conclude or rule that Snyder directed or participated in this profiteering, but that “at the very least, he was aware of some efforts to reduce the distribution of profits.”
Johnston and Friedman made the allegations in early 2022 as part of a congressional inquiry prompted by the league’s refusal to release details of its first investigation into the team’s workplace harassment claims in 2021. .
“Dan Snyder was forced to sell the team he said he wouldn’t sell, pay a huge fine to the NFL and now has an extensive public record of his personal wrongdoing and the misconduct that occurred under his leadership,” Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, the attorneys representing more than 40 former Commanders employees who have spoken out about workplace misconduct, including Johnston and Friedman, said in a statement.
Asked to explain how the league determined the amount of Snyder’s fine, Goodell responded, “It’s a resolution of all the extraordinary things including Mary Jo White’s findings. It’s something that considered by the finance committee, recommended unanimously and accepted unanimously by the members.
Although investigators spoke to 44 witnesses, including former employees released by the group from non-disclosure agreements, and reviewed thousands of documents available to Commanders, Snyder was also punished for failing. to fully cooperate with their inquiry.
She refused for nearly a year to speak with White, and, when she did, she met for only an hour to deny the allegations of sexual harassment. He also said he had “little knowledge or memory of any important information related to financial issues.”
White said the team for months did not produce documents to explain why it moved millions of dollars from accounts with NFL revenue sharing to other accounts.
The Commanders knowingly violated the league’s revenue sharing rules through practices that included misclassifying revenue from NFL games as from other special events, as well as misreporting reduced league ticket prices, the report said.