Marlins Stadium Deal Now the Target of Federal SEC Probe

By Tim Elfrink Fri., Dec. 2 2011 at 9:16 PM

Categories: News

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Maybe federal investigators finally got around to reading our piece about the six biggest lies behind the monumentally awful Miami Marlins stadium deal? Whatever the motivation, the Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoened the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County for financial information about the $500 million in bond sales underpinning the stadium.

The deal leaves taxpayers on the hook for a huge portion of the stadium's cost at ridiculous interest rates, and the feds want to know whether politicians and/or the Marlins owners broke any laws in negotiating the package.

"We are trying to determine whether there have been any violations of the federal securities laws," SEC senior counsel Drew Panahi tells the Herald.

The feds request includes communications between the Marlins and city officials in the years leading up to the stadium deal, the Herald reports.

The feds may be looking into whether city and county officials truly had no insight into the team's finances -- which they've always claimed -- while working out the deal.

Check out our full story on why the deal is rotten for taxpayers -- and if you know a federal investigator, maybe pass it their way while you're at it.

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