Ex-NFLPA boss Howell’s strip membership bills despatched to investigator

Former NFL Gamers Affiliation chief Lloyd Howell Jr. resigned after an outdoor investigator employed by the union acquired paperwork this week exhibiting Howell charged the union for 2 visits to strip golf equipment, together with a $738.82 automobile service that took him from the airport to one of many golf equipment.

The paperwork are union-approved expense studies and receipts, which ESPN started asking questions on hours earlier than Howell abruptly resigned late Thursday evening.

One receipt, obtained by ESPN, exhibits Howell was picked up in a sedan by a automobile service at Fort Lauderdale Worldwide Airport on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, at 10:26 p.m. The automobile’s first cease was at a close-by Miami Gardens handle. The receipt exhibits just one different cease, practically eight hours later.

At 6 a.m., the automobile dropped off Howell at his luxurious condominium in Sunny Isles Seaside, the receipt exhibits.

Later, a union finance employee observed the automobile service’s exorbitant value. The worker searched on-line for the Miami Gardens handle, discovering it was Tootsie’s Cabaret.

The 76,000-square-foot venue payments itself because the world’s largest strip membership — “full nude No. 1 rated.”

The worker flagged the receipt to the union’s journey division for a better stage of overview, two folks aware of union operations advised ESPN. The top of union journey then forwarded the paperwork to compliance for overview by union attorneys, the sources stated.

Greater than a 12 months later, Howell and two union staff visited a strip membership in Atlanta, in keeping with the expense studies obtained by ESPN.

Throughout this 12 months’s NFLPA summit on Feb. 21, Howell accompanied the workers to the Magic Metropolis strip membership for an outing that incurred $2,426 in costs together with money withdrawals, starting from $200 to $525, from a membership ATM, sources and paperwork present. They used two “VIP rooms.”

In keeping with the expense report, the aim of the strip membership outing: “Participant Engagement Occasion to assist & develop our Union.”

The NFLPA summit is an annual occasion to foster management amongst gamers and younger union staff.

One of many staff who accompanied Howell submitted expense studies for this outing, the paperwork present. Howell instructed the worker to file the expense studies, two sources aware of the matter advised ESPN.

The worker famous on a March 23 expense report: “$736 = This was the ultimate quantity I used to be charged to shut the tab for each secluded sections for our Participant Members. This included Meals, Alcoholic Drinks, charges, taxes, and gratuity.” No gamers’ names are listed on receipts or the studies.

Paperwork present 4 money withdrawals have been flagged with “alerts,” apparently referring to potential reimbursement violations.

Howell couldn’t be instantly reached for remark. A union spokesperson declined to remark.

Ronald C. Machen, a lawyer for Wilmer Hale, was employed by a particular committee of gamers to research Howell’s actions. “Our work continues,” a supply near Machen advised ESPN.

Federal labor legal guidelines are strict in terms of a union’s bills and reimbursement actions; the legal guidelines intention to guard union members whose dues fund the entire operations, in contrast to what occurs in a company surroundings.

Bob Stropp, a extensively revered veteran labor lawyer, advised ESPN that the automobile service reimbursement is “the sort of horny factor that will get the eye of the [U.S.] Division of Labor.”

“That is fairly horrible,” stated Stropp, 77, the previous common counsel of the United Mine Staff of America. “That is unbelievable. I do not know the way you get round that. It is arduous to consider that anybody can be that silly.”

The NFLPA has its personal set of strict pointers on reimbursements of all types, however notably for leisure, former union officers say. A former union worker stated that there are not any particular exclusions for venues, like a strip membership, throughout the union’s “leisure” class.

“However I do not suppose anybody of their proper thoughts would suppose that’s an optically good state of affairs,” the previous worker stated. “In mild of this, clearly that side of the coverage must be revisited.”

Howell was elected union president in 2024 and was paid $3.6 million final 12 months. He has lived in Miami since 2019; data present he paid $6.8 million in September 2019 for a three-bedroom condominium within the Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Seaside. The constructing options “in-unit garages for homeowners to accommodate their prized autos.” Like his neighbors within the 132-unit constructing, Howell has entry to an elevator to ship his automobile on to his residence.

Questions on expense studies submitted for strip golf equipment have come up in Howell’s profession earlier than. His prior employer, Booz Allen, questioned him a couple of strip membership go to on firm time, too.

In 2015, Howell and a senior vp visited a Manhattan, New York, strip membership, the place they racked up 1000’s of {dollars} for the evening’s leisure, a former Booz Allen govt advised ESPN. Afterward, Howell’s colleague sought reimbursement on an expense report, which was referred to the agency’s compliance attorneys.

The colleague was fired, and Howell reprimanded, the chief stated. On the time, Howell was a defendant in a sexual discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by a Booz Allen associate. Booz Allen settled — for an undisclosed sum — the case that had alleged Howell and the corporate denied feminine staff management roles and excluded them from sure profession alternatives supplied to males.

One other former Booz Allen govt advised ESPN the corporate was involved about disciplining Howell whereas the lawsuit was lively. A 12 months later, Booz Allen promoted Howell to be its chief monetary officer, with the assist of the CEO and executives on the Carlyle Group, the sources stated.

In his resignation assertion Thursday evening, Howell, 59, stated: “It is clear that my management has turn into a distraction to the essential work the NFLPA advances daily. Because of this, I’ve knowledgeable the NFLPA Government Committee that I’m stepping down as Government Director of the NFLPA and Chairman of the Board of NFL Gamers efficient instantly. I hope this can permit the NFLPA to keep up its concentrate on its participant members forward of the upcoming season.”

Howell’s resignation was made on his personal and shocked some members of the NFLPA’s 10-person govt committee, who tried repeatedly to influence him to not go away the union throughout a prolonged convention name Thursday evening, in keeping with folks briefed on the decision.

The resignation got here after a number of latest studies from ESPN and the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast:

• Earlier on Thursday, ESPN reported on the Booz Allen sexual discrimination and retaliation lawsuit that concerned Howell and whether or not the gamers who voted for him to steer the NFLPA have been conscious of it.

• In Could, ESPN reported that the FBI is investigating the monetary dealings of the union and the MLB Gamers Affiliation associated to a multibillion-dollar group-licensing agency, OneTeam Companions. In keeping with sources, the report triggered a particular committee of gamers’ union to rent Machen to overview Howell’s actions as the chief director.

• Final week, ESPN reported that Howell is working as a paid, part-time advisor for the Carlyle Group, one of many league-approved non-public fairness companies looking for possession in NFL groups.

• ESPN additionally reported final week that Howell struck a confidentiality settlement with the NFL six months in the past that hid the small print of the January arbitration resolution from gamers, together with a discovering that league executives urged crew homeowners to cut back assured participant compensation. The 61-page ruling was revealed by the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast on June 24.

On Sunday, the union’s govt committee backed Howell in a message despatched to membership, saying it had “established a deliberate course of to rigorously assess the problems which were raised and won’t interact in a rush to judgement.”

As lately as late Wednesday evening, two govt committee members gave a robust endorsement to Howell’s management and imaginative and prescient for the NFLPA in a joint interview with ESPN. “We felt nice in regards to the course of,” one in every of them stated. “We’re 100% behind Lloyd.”