Dean Spanos, the majority owner of the Los Angeles Chargers, has been accused of repeated breaches of fiduciary duty and misogynistic behaviour in a lawsuit filed by his sister.
The filing escalates the ongoing battle among the four Spanos siblings over control of the NFL franchise.
Dea Spanos Berberian filed a petition in San Joaquin County Superior Court this week seeking sole control of the family trust that has a 36 per cent stake in the ownership of the Chargers. The lawsuit also asks the court to suspend and remove Dean Spanos as a co-trustee in the trust and for the disqualification of Michael Spanos as successor co-trustee.
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A lawyer representing Dean and Michael Spanos was reviewing the filing before commenting on their behalf.
Spanos and Berberian were left as co-trustees of the trust following the deaths of Alex and Faye Spanos in 2018.
Of the remaining 64 per cent of the Chargers ownership stake, Spanos, Berberian, Alexandra Spanos Ruhl and Michael Spanos each own 15 per cent. The remaining four per cent is owned by non-family members.
Alex Spanos bought the San Diego Chargers in 1984 and Dean Spanos took over managing the franchise in 1994.
In the filing, Berberian accuses Michael and Dean Spanos of repeatedly acting “out of their deeply-held misogynistic attitudes and sense of entitlement as the men in the family.” It states that Dean and Michael “believe to their cores that, regardless of what their parents intended and their wills specified, men are in charge and women should shut up.”
According to the trust’s financial statements, debts totalled over $508 million as of Dec. 31, with debt service and expenses of at least $16 million per year. The trust’s stake in the Chargers makes up 83 per cent of its holdings.
Forbes valued the Chargers at $3.7 billion in its recent franchise rankings. The trust’s share could be worth nearly $1.4 billion.
Berberian has also accused Dean and Michael Spanos of borrowing over $85 million from the trust to buy an airplane and “deliberately” damaging her relationship with the pastor of her Greek Orthodox church.
Berberian filed a petition last March in Los Angeles County Superior Court seeking to have the court put the trust and team’s ownership stake up for sale. Berberian agreed earlier this week to have the matter heard before the NFL in arbitration.
The NFL declined to comment on the matter.