
Photograph Credit score: Las Vegas International Financial Alliance (Tim Leiweke)
Former Oak View Group (OVG) CEO Tim Leiweke’s indictment has uncovered not only a bid-rigging scheme, but in addition secret kickbacks paid by Ticketmaster. That’s, tens of million in kickbacks whereas venues (and everybody else) had been none the wiser.
Final week, DMN first reported on the US Division of Justice’s indictment of Oak View Group cofounder Tim Leiweke, particularly over allegations of rigging the bidding course of to supervise Austin’s Moody Middle. However that’s simply a part of a far broader set of allegations in response to DOG indictment documentation reviewed by Digital Music Information this morning.
Whlie the DOJ’s indictment does point out OVG’s alleged bid-rigging actions, the standout revelation facilities on proof from inner emails pointing to tens of hundreds of thousands in kickbacks from Reside Nation-owned Ticketmaster. These communications reveal that Ticketmaster funneled secret funds to Leiweke and Oak View Group for pushing venues to solely use Ticketmaster as an alternative of different ticketing companions.
Oak View Group is helmed by Leiweke and Irving Azoff, who cofounded the agency in 2015. Because the DOJ’s high-profile indictment, Leiweke has stepped again from CEO duties.
The funds had been made in change for OVG and Leiweke’s efforts to steer different enviornment house owners and operators towards signing unique ticketing offers with the Reside Nation-owned firm. All through these processes, venue representatives weren’t knowledgeable of any relationship between OVG and Reside Nation.
The emails exposing these kickbacks had been first found throughout a regulatory investigation into the proposed merger between Legends Hospitality and ASM International. They present that Leiweke and OVG acquired each upfront cash and annual incentive funds from Ticketmaster. As talked about, the association was not disclosed to OVG’s companion venues—regardless that OVG was employed to characterize their pursuits.
“OVG agreed to obtain tens of hundreds of thousands in funds in return for selling [Ticketmaster] companies to venues OVG managed with out disclosing this battle to venue house owners, regardless of fiduciary duties,” authorities investigators describe. Paperwork from the non-prosecution settlement present that Ticketmaster wired OVG an up-front fee of $20 million in November of 2022 and agreed to pay $7 million yearly thereafter.
The U.S. Division of Justice alleges that the key relationship gave Ticketmaster a lock on ticketing for a lot of arenas nationwide, undercutting competitors and transparency throughout the business.
OVG is accused of advocating for unique Ticketmaster contracts for each its personal venues and people managed by third-party house owners. Officers notice that OVG served as a “pimp, hammer, and protector” for Reside Nation and Ticketmaster by exploiting their administration footprint to defend the businesses from rivals and scrutiny.
In the course of the high-profile 2010 merger of Ticketmaster Leisure and Reside Nation, Irving Azoff served because the CEO of Ticketmaster. Azoff’s management at Ticketmaster was thought of crucial to the merger approval.