Baker Mayfield Sues Father’s Company for $12 Million

Baker Mayfield is suing his father, James, alleging that his father’s companies stole millions from the Buccaneers quarterback and his wife and failed to pay any of it back.

Mayfield and his wife, Emily, filed a federal lawsuit against his father’s company for close to $12 million in damages. It’s a breach of contract lawsuit claiming the company has not upheld a settlement agreement that the two sides reached in January.

The suit says the company transferred more than $12.2 million from the couple “without authorization” from roughly 2018 through 2021, and despite reaching a settlement to pay more than $11.7 million of it back, the company has not begun those payments.

The Mayfields filed their nine-page complaint Friday in U.S. District Court in the Austin Division of the Western District of Texas, claiming breach of contract in regard to the settlement agreement. The companies being sued are “a collection of interconnected entities with common ownership,” according to the filing, and are called Camwood Capital Management Group, Texas Contracting Manufacturing Group, Unitech Tool & Machine, Apex Machining, and Lor-Van Manufacturing. Mayfield’s brother, Matt, is also listed in the suit as a director of Camwood Capital.

“Once Plaintiffs began to uncover Defendants’ misconduct and sought answers to explain the taking of their assets, Defendants attempted to obscure the relevant information, avoided Plaintiffs’ inquiries, and invented fictional explanations for their actions,” the suit says.

The first $250,000 payment agreed upon in the settlement was not met by its Sept. 30 deadline, the suit says, and the companies haven’t responded to messages about it, either. The filing also claims the company has not handed over any financial documents, another requirement of the settlement. The suit says the defendant companies did not have “proper documentation, or adequate accounting” of transactions, Camwood Capital did not keep any financial statements during the time period in question, and neither that company nor Texas Contracting Manufacturing Group filed tax returns during that time, according to the suit.

The Mayfields are seeking that $11.7 million plus interest and attorney fees.

Mayfield is making $30 million this year for the Bucs, who currently sit second in the struggling NFC South with a 5–6 record. The Browns selected him first overall in the 2018 draft—the same year the suit alleges his father started taking his money—and played in Cleveland for four seasons before bouncing between the Panthers and Rams, and finally landing with the Buccaneers in 2023. This March, Mayfield signed a three-year, $100 million deal to stay in Tampa Bay after a hot finish to the 2023 season, winning five of the last six games and blowing out the Eagles in the wild-card round.

The lawsuit gave a hint into the 29-year-old Mayfield’s feelings about his team, saying Baker and Emily “have a fixed residence in Tampa, Florida and each intends to remain there indefinitely.”