St. Petersburg businessman Bill Edwards said he would not have bought the team if he had been told of corruption that resulted in indictments and guilty pleas involving international soccer officials.
St. Petersburg businessman and power player Bill Edwards is suing the North American Soccer League and Traffic Sports USA for fraud.
The action is an attempt to void his agreement to buy the Tampa Bay Rowdies because he alleges the defendants failed to disclose a racketeering conspiracy that led to the massive U.S. Justice Department’s corruption investigation into the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).
Edwards and his firm TBR Holdings, which owns the Rowdies, also sued Aaron Davidson, the former president of Traffic Sports, in the lawsuit filed in state court in Pinellas County.
In the suit, Edwards said he “would not have purchased the Rowdies … had he known of the criminal conspiracy involving Traffic Sports which was an integral part of the League.” He further said that the “agreement was the result of fraud.” Read the lawsuit below.
A call and email to the NASL seeking comment were not immediately returned. Davidson's lawyers also did not immediately return a request for comment.
The probe into corruption at FIFA resulted in indictments and convictions of top officials at the international soccer entity. Federal prosecutors contended that the defendants systematically paid and agreed to pay well over $150 million in bribes and kickbacks to obtain lucrative media and marketing rights to international soccer tournaments, including FIFA World Cup qualifying events in the Americas.
The investigation came to a head in May 2015, when federal prosecutors announced that nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives had been indicted for racketeering, conspiracy and corruption. The 47-count indictment named as defendants two FIFA vice presidents and former presidents of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF); as well as seven defendants who were arrested overseas. At the time of the indictment, four individuals and two companies pleaded guilty.
Among the guilty pleas at the time were those of José Hawilla, the owner and founder of the Traffic Group, a multinational sports marketing conglomerate headquartered in Brazil; and two of Hawilla’s companies, Traffic Sports International Inc. and Traffic Sports USA Inc., which was based in Miami. He also agreed to forfeit over $151 million, $25 million of which was paid at the time of his plea. Traffic Sports USA Inc. and Traffic Sports International Inc. also pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy.
Last October, Davidson pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy. He also agreed to forfeit just over $507,900 in connection with the soccer scandal.
In the lawsuit brought by Edwards, he noted that his company, TBR Holdings, bought the rights to the Tampa Rowdies in 2008 and relocated the team to St. Petersburg. The Rowdies joined the NASL a year later. According to Edwards' complaint, in November 2013 Davidson as well as the Bill Peterson, the commissioner of the NASL, came to St. Pete to meet with Edwards and convince him to buy a controlling interest in the Rowdies — which he did.
Edwards, in the suit, said Davidson and Peterson disclosed that Traffic Sports had contracts and held the commercial rights to the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Champions League as well as acting as the commercial agency for the League.
“However, [they] did not divulge that Traffic had paid bribes to those organizations as more fully revealed when Hawilla pleaded guilty,” Edwards said in the lawsuit.
Edwards further contended in his lawsuit that the "[NASL] and "Davidson made misrepresentations of material facts when they failed to disclose all facts about Traffic Sports, including its criminal activities and the League’s ongoing dispute with Traffic Sports.”
Not only is Edwards seeking to have the agreement declared void, he also wants the court to declare that his company, TBR Holdings, is entitled to 23.08 percent of money that was paid to Traffic Sports after Sept. 23, 2015.
"I was forced out of the league because I refused to deal with criminals," Edwards said in the interview. "I've lost a lot of money in the process going from one league to another." He said he has lost millions of dollars.
The Tampa Bay Rowdies now play in the Tampa-based United Soccer League.
Edwards is currently awaiting the outcome of special election on May 2 in St. Petersburg on whether the city can negotiate a long-term agreement with him to lease Al Lang Stadium, part of a larger effort to win a Major League Soccer franchise.
This lawsuit "doesn't mean anything" for his pursuit of leasing and renovating the stadium, he said.
Leases longer than five years on downtown waterfront property require voter approval. Edwards is asking for a 25-year lease in order to undertake $80 million in renovations to the stadium.
In January, Edwards and a team entourage traveled to New York City to personally deliver the Rowdies pitch to MLS as an expansion team.
Renovations planned for Al Lang Stadium would increase seating capacity from 7,000 to 18,000 and would open the stadium to waterfront views. While seating in the stadium would increase, the plans do not increase the stadium’s overall footprint and the new height would be about the same as neighboring Mahaffey Theater.
Edwards is in litigation involving another company he owns — Mortgage Investors Corp. The lawsuit, filed by two mortgage brokers, alleges the company overcharged veterans. Edwards is fighting the suit, which has been going back and forth in the litigation process since 2006.