Former Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) boss Tim Leiweke has been indicted by a U.S. grand jury for allegedly rigging the bidding process for an arena in Austin, Texas.
Leiweke is co-founder and CEO of Oak View Group (OVG), which develops and provides a variety of services to live entertainment venues.
According to the indictment, Leiweke told colleagues in September 2017 that another company was “bidding against us” for the arena project and that he wanted to “find a way to get [the competitor] some of the business” to get them to “back down.” In February 2018, Leiweke reached an agreement which would see the competitor’s CEO not submit a bid in exchange for receiving subcontracts with the project. OVG submitted the sole qualifying bid and won the arena project.
According to the Justice Department, the Moody Center opened in April 2022, and OVG “continues to receive significant revenues from the project to date.”
OVG has agreed to pay $15 million in penalties, while Legends Hospitality will pay a $1.5 million penalty in connection with the conduct alleged in the indictment against Leiweke.
Leiweke faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine if found guilty of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Oak View Group said in a statement that Leiweke will step down as CEO and transition to Vice Chairman of the Board, a move that was already in process.
“While I’m pleased the company has resolved its Department of Justice Antitrust Division inquiry without any charges filed or admission of wrongdoing, the last thing I want to do is distract from the accomplishments of the team or draw focus away from executing for our partners, so the Board and I decided that now is the right time to implement the succession plan that was already underway and transition out of the CEO role,” Leiweke said in a statement.
Leiweke was named president and CEO of MLSE in April 2013 and was responsible for hiring Brendan Shanahan as the president of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Masai Ujiri as president of the Toronto Raptors. He remained at the helm of the sports and media conglomerate until October 2015 before establishing OVG later that year.
