It is never surprising when a couple of feuding owners find potentially damaging information about each other and slowly leak it to the press. This seems to be the case for the two feuding owners of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The feud between Len Barrie and Owen Koules had gotten so bad that the NHL had to step in and give each owner a 60 day period to but the other out. Barrie was given the first such period, but now some serious allegations may unravel his entire ownership stake in the hockey team.
According to Tampa Bay.com Barrie has been accused of misappropriating funds from a Golf Community and Spa in British Columbia, Canada. Barrie was on the executive committee of the Bear Mountain Spa. After a December audit it was determined that up to 25.8 million dollars from the company was diverted to other companies that Barrie controlled.
Another member of the management team has stated that his number was around 0 million dollars being misused around the same time that Barrie was completing the purchase of the Lightning. Barrie originally bought a 35% stake in the hockey team.
Apparently the Spa’s Accounting Firm was so displeased with the executive committees accounting practices, that it felt that may be improper and possibly illegal, they were forced to resign from the account.
Scott Bye, who is a financial advisor for San Jose Sharks Defenseman and Bear Mountain investor Rob Blake, was invited to join the spa’s executive committee by Barrie as the community was rapidly expanding. Bye describes a January 21st meeting in which 20 transaction that the accounting firm and labeled questionable. It seemed that the Spa was going to need to audit those transactions to insure continued bank financing.
Barrie has claimed that there was a 5 million dollar payment that was made for debt purposes, but all this seems highly questionable.
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