Washington Commanders embattled ex-owner Dan Snyder fined $60 million

Dan Snyder is no stranger to controversy. The outgoing Washington Commanders owner has been in hot water for a very long time.

The totality of his reign as Commanders owner has been mired in scandal, from the Redskins name protest, to numerous complaints about the workplace and a raft of investigations into sexual and financial skulduggery going back a decade.

On Thursday, the NFL owners unanimously approved the sale of the franchise to the Josh Harris investors group, and to add a final exclamation mark to the entire episode, the league handed down a $60 million fine as a parting shot to Snyder.

This was a result of a two-part release by the league and Commissioner Roger Goodell, who took the opportunity of announcing the approval of the sale, to also release the findings of an independent investigation conducted over 17 months by former U.S. Attorney and SEC Chair Mary Jo White into the Commanders and Snyder.

“The conduct substantiated in Ms. White’s findings has no place in the NFL,” said Goodell. “We strive for workplaces that are safe, respectful and professional. What Ms. Johnston experienced is inappropriate and contrary to the NFL’s values.”

Here is the text of Mary Jo White’s conclusion:

“After extensive investigation, we have sustained both Tiffani Johnston’s allegation of sexual harassment by Mr. Snyder and Jason Friedman’s allegation of deliberate underreporting of NFL revenues by the Club to avoid its VTS sharing obligations. We found that the evidence was insufficient to demonstrate Mr. Snyder’s involvement in the calendar photo incident or in the security deposit issues, and was inconclusive as to his personal participation in the Club’s improper shielding of VTS revenues. In the course of the Investigation, we also identified a variety of transactions and accounting entries, left unexplained by the Club, which raised a number of issues as to whether a significant portion of the revenues recorded were NFL-related revenues improperly shielded from VTS sharing.”

Mr Goodell went on to explain in a statement, “We appreciate the diligence, thoroughness and professionalism of Ms. White and her team throughout this process. We pledged to share her findings publicly and are doing so today.”

While $60 million is not chump change, by any definition, Snyder just pulled off the most lucrative sale of any sports franchise in history, making $6.05 billion on the deal. The fine is a fraction less than 1% of his earnings on this deal alone. Good work if you can get it.