Lawsuit could expose Marlins’ financial details
Miami, Dade County claim ex-owner owes them money after sale.
MIAMI — The finances of the Miami Marlins have always been one of the most sought-after secrets in local sports. Now a judge might start exposing them.
A lawsuit by Miami-Dade against the Marlins asks for a trove of financial information from Jef- frey Loria’s $1.2 billion sale of the team last October, as well as disclosures of some of the team’s long-term finances under Loria’s tenure. Loria has already resisted turning over anything but a barebones summary of the details of the October sale to Derek Jeter and partners.
The financial details behind that sale are the target of the lawsuit by Miami and Miami-Dade County over a nearly 10-year-old
provision that traded more than $400 million in public money to build Marlins Park for a 5 percent share of certain proceeds if Loria sold the team by the spring of 2018.
Loria’s lawyers provided a five-page financial summary trying to justify the New York art dealer’s claim of a $140 million paper loss under the terms of the 2009 stadium agreement. On Thursday, Circuit Court Judge Beatrice Butchko ruled against Loria, saying he needed to provide more details to justify his claim of owing the taxpayers nothing on the sale of a team he bought for $158 million in 2002.
County lawyers hope the ruling will open a broad window into the team’s finances under Loria. The 2009 agreement calls for an independent accounting firm to look at the confidential financial documents and make an unbiased recommendation on profit-sharing. But a Miami-Dade attorney at the hearing argued Loria’s actions have thrust the question into what could be a drawn-out, detailed trial to explore how much Loria actually made selling to Jeter and partners.
“Our position is now that portion of the agreement is inoperable,” said Jorge Martinez-Esteve, an assistant county attorney in MiamiDade. “Our argument is it’s for your honor and a panel of jurors to determine what the 5 percent equity payment is.”
Butchko declined to rule on whether she would let the dispute go before a jury — raising the prospects of county lawyers bringing Loria or even Jeter to the stand — or simply order both sides to undergo the arbitration process laid out in the 2009 agreement. Butchko could also oversee the appointment of an accounting firm to audit Loria’s numbers in private, likely shielding many of the underlying records from public view.
Marlins lawyers argued the county and city can learn more details if they want to protest Loria’s calculations before a neutral arbitrator.
“We are open to curing any request for information,” said Loria lawyer Peter Duffy Doyle, from Proskauer Rose in New York. “We are not telling them to sit on their hands. We want to have an open discussion.”
While the dispute involves only the calculated profit for the 2017 sale, the legal arguments could use evidence going back to the start of Loria’s ownership. One disputed deduction centers on a $30 million transaction fee paid to a financial firm owned by a Loria deputy, ex-Marlins vice chairman Joel Mael. The five-page summary of the 2017 sale prepared for Loria by the Grant Thornton accounting firm said the fee stems from a 2000 contract between a Loria entity and Mael’s firm, Tallwood Associates.
Loria also deducted $279 million in debt during his tenure as owner — money that the county claims in its suit was at least in part loaned from one Loria entity to another. The agreement also has a $35 million deduction for contributions owners made to the team over the years — cash that may have been needed to cover losses.
The Marlins’ financial health has been a matter of dispute since Miami and Miami-Dade leaders pushed through a series of unpopular funding packages in 2008 and 2009 that had the two governments agree to pay nearly $500 million in tax dollars for construction of the 37,000-seat Marlins Park in Little Havana and the garages that surround it. The Marlins contributed $155 million.
Saturday’s game
Marlins 3, Nationals 2: Miami pounded out 10 hits, including a home run by catcher J.T. Realmuto in the fourth inning that tied the game at 1, and defeated Washington at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter.
Center field prospect Magneuris Sierra, a key piece the Marlins received in return for trading Marcell Ozuna to the Cardinals in the offseason, had two hits, including the game-winner on a single in the seventh that scored Peter Mooney from third with no outs. Sierra hit .317 in 22 games as call-up for the Cardinals last season, including going 5-for11 with six runs scored and two stolen bases when the Cardinals swept the Marlins on May 8-10 at Marlins Park.
Jacob Turner started and gave up one run and four hits while recording one strikeout and one walk, and six Marlins combined to give up just five hits. Neither Bryce Harper nor Park Vista High alum Trae Turner played for the Nationals.