Oak View Group founder and CEO Tim Leiweke, one of the most accomplished and respected executives in the business of sports, has been criminally indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in an alleged bid-rigging scheme.
The government claims that Leiweke, while in the midst of bidding in 2017 and 2018 to build the Moody Center at the University of Texas in Austin, entered into an agreement with another potential bidder for the rival to drop its independent proposal. Leiweke was to provide lucrative subcontracts in return, but the indictment claims that he and OVG reneged on that promise.
The indictment includes a charge of conspiracy to restrain trade, in violation of the Sherman Act.
“The defendant rigged a bidding process to benefit his own company and deprived a public university and taxpayers of the benefits of competitive bidding,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Antitrust Division and its law enforcement partners will continue to hold executives who cheat to avoid competition accountable.”
The $375 million Moody Center opened in April 2022, with OVG submitting the lone qualified bid, and it still stands as one of the most advanced venues in a mid-sized market such as Austin.
OVG, which was not named in the indictment and instead referred to as “co-conspirator company 1,” entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the Justice Department and will pay a $15 million fine. Legends Hospitality, an OVG rival company, also entered into a similar non-prosecution agreement and will pay a $1.5 million fine.
Leiweke faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The Justice Department, however, also said that the fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime if either amount is greater than the statutory maximum fine.
OVG said in a statement that it “cooperated fully with the Antitrust Division’s inquiry and is pleased to have resolved this matter with no charges filed against OVG and no admission of fault or wrongdoing,” while making no reference to Leiweke. Separately, a spokesperson for Leiweke said in a statement that he “will vigorously defend himself and his well-deserved reputation for fairness and integrity. The Antitrust Division’s allegations are wrong on the law and the facts, and the case should never have been brought.”
Amid that, Leiweke also said he will step down from his day-to-day CEO leadership role and transition to a new one as vice chair of the OVG board of directors. OVG360 president Chris Granger will rise to Leiweke’s former position.
Before this situation arose, Leiweke had amassed a career spanning more than four decades and many facets of team operations, venue development, and live entertainment. That run has included senior leadership positions with Anschutz Entertainment Group, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, and for nearly the past decade, OVG, in partnership with music business titan Irving Azoff.
Under Leiweke’s leadership, OVG has built and managed a series of major venues beyond the Moody Center, including Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena and UBS Arena in New York, and it has long eyed being a fundamental part of a new NBA-ready arena in Las Vegas should a team be placed there.
