Rumors

Howard Schultz credits Bill Gates Sr. with being the critical force in getting him control of Starbucks in 1987. Then in 1992, when Starbucks went public, one of the lead underwriters was Alex. Brown, run by “Buzzy” Krongard. About the same time, Paul Allen bought the Trail Blazers (1988) and Seahawks (1997) meaning that people connected to Gates, Microsoft, and Krongard owned almost all the major pro teams in the Northwest. 2006 Howard Schultz sold the Sonics to a group from Oklahoma City. The hands-on leader was Clay Bennett, but the deep pockets in the group came from a man named Aubrey McClendon. McClendon had co-founded Chesapeake Energy, which had gone public in 1993 underwritten by Bear Sterns, where Epstein had worked a little over a decade earlier and maintained relationships. At the time of the sale, McClendon emailed co-investors “the OKLAHOMA CITY SONIC BOOM.” 2007 According to a subsequent federal indictment, in 2007, McClendon began an effort to rig bids in the natural gas industry. In April, members of the Sonics’ ownership group began emailing Clay Bennett to ask if the team could be moved to Oklahoma City as quickly as possible. Bennett declared “I am a man possessed!”

TrueHoop

L.A.-based sports marketing and talent representation giant Wasserman is changing its name to The Team starting Monday. The branding shift comes as the agency’s founder & CEO Casey Wasserman is selling off an estimated 40% stake valued at approximately $2B. It was revealed in late January that he exchanged emails with Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, in 2003.

Sports Business Journal

Casey Wasserman, a Los Angeles entertainment executive and chair of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics whose name recently surfaced in the Epstein files, said late Friday he has started the process of selling the talent agency he founded more than two decades ago.

New York Times

Pablo Torre Finds Out: .@PabloTorre just searched the new Epstein files and found Tom McMillen AGAIN. The former NBA player turned Congressman told Pablo he fell out with Jeffrey Epstein in the early 90s. Why were they e-mailing in 2013—after Epstein was found guilty and registered as a sex offender?

x.com

Jeffrey Epstein and Sixers co-owner Josh Harris had an ongoing business relationship that included numerous phone calls and at least one visit to Epstein’s home in Manhattan, according to emails released Friday by the U.S. Department of Justice. The emails do not contain any indication that Harris was involved with sexual misconduct.

inquirer.com

The records — buried within the three million documents made public Friday as part of the congressionally ordered release of the Epstein Files — shed light on a yearslong correspondence that occurred after Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea for solicitation of prostitution with a minor, but before his 2019 arrest on child sex trafficking charges.

inquirer.com

Epstein’s relationship with Black and Apollo would eventually disintegrate over a legal dispute about his tax and estate planning fees. Harris and Epstein continued to email sporadically until at least 2016. That year, Robert Bodian, managing partner at the law firm Mintz, reached out to Epstein, indicating he was contacting him at “Josh’s request,” apparently regarding a tax issue. And, in September 2016, Epstein e-mailed Harris again directly asking him to call him about an unspecified issue. “Any conversation that you prefer to stay between just us. will. its my financial confessional booth for jews,” Epstein wrote. “Will do Jeff,” Harris responded. “Happy to catch up. Thx.”

inquirer.com