The Guggenheim Baseball Group took control of the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 1; immediately, they made the fan-friendly move of lowering parking fees. All is happy in Dodger-land, right?
Not so fast. As May comes to a close, there’s word that a federal grand jury is investigating the way former owner Frank McCourt used Dodger funds during his ownership. Bill Shaikin:
A federal grand jury is investigating possible criminal financial misconduct of the Dodgers and related entities during the ownership of Frank and Jamie McCourt, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Authorities have requested documents from representatives of each of the McCourts and from Major League Baseball, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of grand jury investigations.
The investigation started early last year and appears to be focused on tax issues and possible improprieties in the spending of team funds, one of the people said.
We won’t know much of anything about this until and unless any indictments are handed down by the grand jury, because, as noted above, those investigations are supposed to be confidential.
Comparisons of McCourt and Rasputin would appear appropriate at this time. Baseball people would probably like this all to go away, but it seems we might not have heard the last of it.
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