A prominent sports executive has been criminally charged with organising a conspiracy to ensure his own company won the bid to build a $388m sports arena in Texas.
Timothy Leiweke, the former president of the Denver Nuggets basketball team and former CEO of MLSE, which owns Toronto’s major sports franchises including the Leafs and Raptors was charged on Wednesday by a federal grand jury. He resigned as chief executive of the company at the center of the case, Oak View Group (OVG), after the announcement.
Spokespeople for Leiweke, 68, issued a statement maintaining he had “done nothing wrong and will vigorously defend himself and his well-deserved reputation for fairness and integrity”.
Investigators allege that Leiweke spent a period from February 2018 to at least June 2024 conspiring with a competitor’s CEO to “rig the bidding for the development, management and use” of the Moody Center, at the University of Texas at Austin.
Leiweke allegedly struck a deal that the rival firm would agreed to avoid bidding on the Moody Center in exchange for OVG providing it with the project’s subcontracts.
OVG went on to construct the building after submitting the sole bid and the Moody Center opened in 2022. The company “continues to receive significant revenues from the project to date”, the US justice department said in a statement.
Leiweke could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $1m or more if convicted.
A statement from Abigail Slater, an assistant attorney general at the justice department’s antitrust division, accused Leiweke of having “deprived a public university and taxpayers of the benefits of competitive bidding” to boost his company’s bottom line. She said federal officials would always strive “to hold executives who cheat to avoid competition accountable”.
Christopher Raia of the FBI said in a statement that “public contracts are subject to laws requiring an open and competitive bid process to ensure a level playing field”, adding: “The FBI is determined to ensure those who disregard fair competition principles do not benefit from a rigged bidding process targeting our communities and public institutions.”
Leiweke was president of the Nuggets from 1991 to 1995 before becoming CEO of the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), whose holdings include the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and Los Angeles Galaxy soccer club. After leaving AEG in 2013, he was CEO and president of Canada-based MLSE, whose holdings include Toronto’s major sports franchises. He co-founded OVG, based in Denver, and became its CEO in 2015.
Among OVG’s upcoming construction projects was a new arena at Louisiana State University (LSU). Officials at the university reportedly told The Advocate newspaper that they are reviewing how the charges against Leiweke may affect the new arena project.
