The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the San Diego County District Attorney’s office are both investigating a series of stadium and venue scandals recently revealed by the nonprofit news journal Voice of San Diego.
As reported by Will Huntsberry, nonprofit groups provide workers — who are supposed to be volunteers — to staff concessions stands at major sports venues across the country. The nonprofits get to keep a percentage of the incoming revenue — often around 10 percent — to put toward their own respective missions.
In one case, exposed by Voice in August, one supposed nonprofit claiming to support girls’ softball didn’t do charity work of any kind. It raked in, at minimum, hundreds of thousands of dollars while operating in Petco Park, home of MLB's Padres, for nine years , as well as at Snapdragon Stadium, home of San Diego State University footballl. Further reporting showed other supposed nonprofits paid people under the table and below minimum wage to work at most of the major venues around the region — including Snapdragon, Petco, North Island Credit Union Amphitheater, Sports Arena and the former Qualcomm Stadium, Huntsberry reported..
\The FBI’s investigation began in August after Voice exposed Chula Vista Fast Pitch, the phantom nonprofit, according to sources familiar with the investigation. FBI officials declined to answer any questions.
The District Attorney’s Workplace Justice Unit is also looking into the matter, an investigator with the unit confirmed.
The workplace justice team “prosecutes unfair business practices, wage and hour violations, payroll tax evasion, wage theft and labor trafficking cases,” according to the District Attorney’s website, as reported by Hunstberry.
The supposed nonprofit groups that bring in would-be volunteers, essentially, function as a staffing service for venues across the region — albeit one that pays off the books and below minimum wage.
One group providing staffing at Chula Vista’s amphitheater and Petco Park is called Lov4Jaro. Operated by Liliana Osuna, Lov4Jaro — unlike Chula Vista Fast Pitch — is an up-to-date, registered nonprofit. It is meant to honor the legacy of a man named Jorge Alberto Rocha Osuna, who was murdered in a road rage incident.
But Jorge Osuna’s siblings say Lov4Jaro is misusing its charitable status.
“It’s not in any way a nonprofit. It’s doing concessions and paying people under the table. It’s running a catering business,” Chris Osuna, who runs a separate nonprofit dedicated to his brother’s memory, previously said, as reported by Voice. “She can’t get people out there, so she pays people X amount of dollars, but it’s very minimal.”
Venmo receipts show Lilianna Osuna paid people anywhere from $40 to $70 after various concerts at the amphitheater.
Lilianna Osuną previously told Huntberry these payments are meant to be a “donation.”
"Linda Rosenthal, a lawyer for the For Purpose Law Group, previously said, in general, that’s not how donations work," Huntsberry wrote Dec. 5. "Nonprofit groups can pay people a small stipend and reimburse volunteers for expenses, but they shouldn’t be paying in cash, in any amount that is even close to minimum wage."
“The bottom line is, if you’re calling someone a ‘volunteer,’ they really need to be a volunteer,” Rosenthal said. “If you’re giving them a stipend, it really has to be not very much.”
Paying people off the books and below minimum wage violates multiple laws, lawyers told Voice. It’s a tax violation when would-be employers don’t take out taxes for an employee, and it’s a labor violation when they pay below minimum wage.
It’s unclear how far the parameters of federal and local investigations currently extent.
Officials for Petco Park concessionaire Delaware North and the Padres both said they had not been contacted by law enforcement. Likewise, San Diego State officials said they had not been contacted in regard to the ongoing investigations, according to Huntsberry.
