Before his time as sole owner of the Washington Commanders, Daniel Snyder allegedly engaged in multiple acts of financial misconduct. “ESPN” reports serious allegations by former minority owners of the Commanders.

No rest for the Washington Commanders.

On Monday, the “Washington Post” had reported that Daniel Snyder, owner of the Commanders, had so angered the other team owners in the NFL that there were considerations to force him to sell his club.

Less than 24 hours later, “ESPN” published an article detailing allegations against the 58-year-old by former shareholders of the Commanders.

The network has documents accusing Snyder of serious financial misconduct.

Ten million a year for private jet

For example, the then majority owner allegedly had his team pay him ten million dollars a year to provide the club with his private jet.

He also arranged for the payment of an “advertising fee” of $4.5 million to have the jet printed with the club’s logo.

The three former minority owners, Dwight Schar, Frederick W. Smith and Robert Rothman, claim in the leaked documents that this “advertising” had little value.

The allegations are also explosive because neither Schar, Smith nor Rothman had agreed to the payments, even though Snyder owned only 60 percent of the franchise at the time in question.

Investigation into financial misconduct

More seriously, however, further allegations of an unauthorised loan are the focus of financial misconduct investigations by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service.

In 2018, Snyder allegedly arranged for the team’s credit lines at Bank of America to be increased to $55 million without informing or obtaining the consent of his three co-owners.

Sixteen months later, Snyder’s partners allegedly discovered the loan hidden in the fine print of the franchise’s financial report.

After a confrontation with the majority owner, Smith, Schar and Rothman turned to the NFL.

From 875 million to 2.8 billion?

After a two-day arbitration process led by the league in 2020, they sold their shares to Snyder in 2021.

The latter paid $875 million to buy out the total 40 per cent.

In the upcoming sale of the Commanders, Snyder is seeking a sum of seven billion dollars.

If this price is achieved, Snyder would have more than tripled his stake in the shares in two years.

Snyder blocked bid

This also leaves a stale taste because Snyder had blocked a sale of Smith’s shares to businessman Alan Kestenbaum in 2018, finding Kestenbaum unacceptable to the NFL.

A year later, the latter bought into the Atlanta Falcons with the NFL owners’ approval.

If the allegations against Snyder prove true, Snyder could face jail time for fraud.