Friedman, through his lawyers, backed up his testimony and said he would answer further questions from any of the government agencies reviewing the team’s activities.
“My client is also ready to defend himself publicly against these baseless allegations if Mr. Snyder allows him to do so,” said his lawyers, Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, referring to team owner Daniel Snyder. “In the meantime, we will communicate directly with the team about these demonstratively false allegations.
In March, Friedman testified before the practice committee, which he said some team leaders called a “squeeze,” which reportedly earned revenue from NFL match tickets from other events held at the team’s stadium to reduce the amount of ticket revenue. it was necessary to share with 31 other NFL teams.
One example he provided included royalties for college games or concerts held at the team’s stadium in Maryland. In a testimony cited by the commission in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, Friedman said team leaders kept a set of books with the changed numbers he provided to the NFL and a second set with accurate reporting that was shown to Snyder.
Snyder, through a representative, declined to comment.
In a presentation to the FTC on Monday, the team said its auditors, like those in the NFL, had access to all revenue, including from events outside the NFL, and would find such a discrepancy if it existed. Specifically in response to Friedman’s claim that $ 162,360 of Commanders’ games were categorized as college game revenue, the team offered screenshots of emails that it claimed showed the money was correctly listed as NFL team revenue.
Friedman also testified that in his role he oversaw the processing of security deposits paid by season ticket holders and that after Snyder bought the team in 1999, the team deliberately made it difficult for ticket holders to recover their refunds. He claims that Commanders held $ 5 million in such deposits.
Washington has disputed the allegations, saying it has turned about $ 200,000 in security deposits into revenue, but only after those customers failed to make payments. In 2014 alone, commanders said, they reimbursed guarantee deposits on about 750 or half of dormant bills and returned more than $ 2 million over time.
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