Frank McCourt has paid back hundreds of thousands in questionable Dodgers charity salary expenditures

If Frank McCourt only misses the June 30th payroll by only $122,000, we know why! Jim Peltz and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times report:

Dodgers owner Frank McCourt repaid more than $100,000 to a team charity after the state attorney general found the funds had been used primarily for the benefit of the club’s former chief executive, Jamie McCourt.

McCourt paid that back in March. This payback is not to be confused with the money McCourt paid back in connection with the $400,000 the charity -- the Dodger Dream Foundation -- paid the Dodgers’ lobbyist Howard Sunkin in 2007. $400,000 from a charity whose total charitable assets were something less than $2 million at the time state authorities became aware of Sunkin’s payment. The Dodgers have another charity -- a cancer charity -- which has also seen excessive payments to executives, though it’s unclear what kind of scrutiny that has come under from state or federal officials.

And no, I would not be surprised if federal officials were paying attention to this on some level. When you’re dealing with charities, you’re dealing with tax deductible money. And the IRS cares if tax deductible money is going to executives for decidedly non-charitable purposes.

But by all means, Frank, introduce some “acrimonious and extreme litigation” into all of this so that this stuff can be discovered and scrutinized more.