The Securities & Exchange Commission subpoenaed information – including financial records and correspondence with commissioner Bud Selig – as part of a probe into the Marlins' new stadium deal according to Charles Rabin, Martha Brannigan, and Patricia Mazzei of The Miami Herald. Joe Capozzi of The Palm Beach Post hears from a team official that the probe will not impact their offseason plans, however.
“It will have no affect whatsoever on our roster plans,” said vice president P.J. Loyello.
The Marlins have been one of the most active teams this offseason. They've already agreed to sign Heath Bell for three years and $27MM, and they remain heavily involved in the bidding for Jose Reyes. C.J. Wilson, Mark Buehrle, and even Albert Pujols are on their radar as well.
The federal probe could take over a year to sort out, with the city and county having until January 6th to turn over correspondence and the club's financial records dating back to 2007.
When you are done reading that article, you questions as to “how can the Marlins afford these free agents” should be answered…
Bernard Madoff must’ve escaped from prison.
“How can this team afford a $515MM ballpark? We must investigaste!”
wait so what are they looking into and what can happen if they get in trouble?
if for some miraculous reason the SEC isn’t bribed into suppressing their ‘findings’, jail-time is a possibility for the government officials involved. as far as Loria, I don’t really see much grounds for prison time for him, though I’d love for that to be the case. However it might be possible that stiff fines are imposed unto the Marlins for supplying misleading information as far as their financial standing and the possible (definite) charges of fiscally influencing (the ‘campaign contributions’) the government officials into approving the deal, possibly resulting into a forced auction of the club after all’s said and done. The sport of baseball needs to file a restraining order against Loria.
Yeah, the real danger would be if the feds unearthed that Loria and his minions intentionally falsified the Marlins’ accounting records in order to increase their chances of securing funding for the stadium (if not outright bribed government officials to further increase their odds). If so, they could certainly sentence Loria and others to jail time and order that a certain amount of the club’s prospective revenues be diverted back to the city and county. And that conceivably could force an eventual sale of the club.
sounds like best case scenario. let’s hope for the best.
the hypocrisy of Selig to go so viciously after McCourt but support a scumbag like Loria…. frankly doesn’t surprise me.
Reported!
by the nice police
poor baby eyes can’t handle being in a room with adults
huh?
a response to the dude that got so offended over a word he had to report the post. those who can’t handle seeing ‘profanities’ should go to nickelodeon or cartoon networks forums instead. I’d assume we’re all old enough to know that words are just words.
i understand now
Gotta love the SEC. They open an investigation not only after the deal is final but wait until the stadium is a couple of months away from being 100% complete. Wouldn’t the logical strategy be to do all this before the the stadium is built? But what is their even left to investigate? Its pretty clear, all the money the county gave is public record as is the what the Marlins contributed. This is the problem with regulation in this country its reactive instead of being preventative. Wait til the offense is committed and then slap the wealthy responsible on the wrist afterwards. Its okay though, if the Marlins are anything like Citi or Goldman Sachs they’ll just promise the SEC investigator a high-salary fake job after he’s done with the agency so the probe falls flat on its face.
Oh wait, you expected the government to work in the interest of the general public?
LULZ!!!
sure just like they said Madoff will not affect Mets
Bingo.
After all, what did fans expect the Marlins to say? ‘We’ve got a problem and we’re pulling back all offers to FAs’?
LOL
“The financing agreement to build the controversial new stadium in Little
Havana left the county and city on the hook for almost 80 percent of
the overall $634 million tab, which critics considered a giveaway to the
Marlins.
This is another reason why teams themselves should be forced to pay 100% costs for stadiums and bear the entire cost, just like it used to be. I can understand a local municipality MAYBE going as far as donating local land, but no further than that.
Taxpayers always get stuck with the bill..Every..Single..Time..
Far too many do not vote, or are not even aware of the under handedness going on in these deals, tho it did take down the mayor of Miami in this case..Maybe it should have taken down the entire City of Miami local government for allowing it to happen in the 1st place.
Beyond comprehension and hopefully Stiff jail sentences are in order for anyone remotely involved.
The Cardinals financed their own stadium. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen.
do you wanna cookie
You want the lame post award?
He said it never happens and I simply pointed out it does. It’s something that should happen more and the owners that do pay their own bill don’t get enough credit for it.
well you being the mvp of lame i will take that award sir , seemed like you were gloating to me , my bad
I gave you a “like” for that one and appreciated yourself bringing it to my attention…
It was a breath of fresh air to see a team, for a change finance their own stadium…
FYI… For those who did not know, or care…
The Red Sox ownership were actually looking for money from new England last season to move in the fences at RF.. Imagine that!! One reason they did not? The move would have substantially modified the stadium and it could have been moved off the historical landmarks and lost tax dollars….
I miss Tom Yawkey….
Edit:
I should add that 1 reason for the RF fence move in was to make them withing league guidelines for size.
What kind of cookie? I may be interested.
the kind you can only buy in a few states and have to have a card to get in the door
Bud Selig and his fans in the media can pump up his reputation as having helped baseball all they want but Selig handed over two premier teams in two of the largest markets in the nation to absolutely horrendous owners. He’s played favorites with Loria when its obvious he’s a dishonest hack. His owner selection has been absolutely terrible. Mark Cuban? Hell no. Frank McCourt? Hell yes.
The CBA tries to fix competitive imbalance by addressing IFA signing, draft slotting and a new wild card team. Competitive balance would be helped a lot more if the Yankees and Red Sox were competing against clubs like the Mets, Dodgers, O’s and Cubs who could actually field teams competently.
What does this mean?
In the end, it means absolutely nothing. They opened a fake investigation that won’t lead to anything at all.
So the government is investigating the Miami Marlins and not the city of Detroit? Stupid people.
Obama doesn’t need the embarrassment right now.
The embarrassment of fixing one of the countries most important cities? I’m not following.
how do you know in the end it means absolutely nothing?
can you walk me through your calculations?
The SEC should investigate those new uniforms while they’re at it.
that’s more of a job for the fashion unit of the Miamin PD
Still time to take advantage of the synergy. Switch to orange jump suits. Compliments Hanley’s dye job nicely.
OUCH!!!
LORIA, you have some SPLAININ TO DO!
Somethings Fishy here.
im curious how some of the posters on here came to the conclusion that this in the end will mean abosolutely nothing?
can you guys walk me through your calculations?
rich people tend to buy their way out of trouble. it’s why poor people go to prison and rich people get stuff like ‘house arrest’ or ‘probation’.