Dodgers Owner Frank McCourt repaid “more than $100,000 to a team charity after the state attorney general found that the funds had been used primarily for the benefit” of his ex-wife Jamie McCourt, according to Peltz & Shaikin of the L.A. TIMES. The California attorney general’s office in a March 3 letter to the Dodgers Dream Foundation said that the “foundation in 2008 had authorized a consulting contract worth $122,352 in violation of state requirements governing charity funds.” Subsequently, the money was “ordered repaid to the charity.” The investigation cited the Dream Foundation for “improper expenditures totaling $361,432 in 2007 and 2008, including a bonus payment of $239,080 to” Dodgers Senior VP/Public Affairs Howard Sunkin. The Dream Foundation in ’08 retained Sanderson Strategies “as a consultant, in a contract the attorney general found was ‘primarily for the benefit of a member of the board of directors.’” While the attorney general’s letter “did not name the director in question,” Peltz & Shaikin note based on “interviews and federal tax records for the foundation, the director could only be Jamie McCourt.” Sanderson Strategies President Len Sanderson said that his “primary assignment was to shape the foundation’s mission,” and that his plan “included efforts to raise Jamie McCourt’s profile.” Dream Foundation attorney William Choi said the amount paid to Sanderson was repaid to the foundation by Frank McCourt “from his personal account.” Choi added there was “nothing to indicate that Mr. McCourt received any personal benefit” from Sanderson’s work (L.A. TIMES, 6/23).
STAYING OUT OF IT: The L.A. TIMES' Bill Shaikin cites sources as saying that Fox “would not stand by Frank McCourt” if he asked a bankruptcy judge to “order approval of the television contract” rejected this week by MLB Commissioner Bud Selig. White & Case attorney Rob Kampfner said that the “Fox position would ‘severely complicate’ any plans McCourt might have to file bankruptcy as a way to retain control of the Dodgers” (L.A. TIMES, 6/23).
