Dan Snyder's Investment Fund Faces Lawsuit Over Golden Globes

There has never been any question about Dan Snyder's business acumen. At 45, he's a self-made billionaire. Snyder, the Washington Redskins owner, is a different story, however. Words like clueless, inept and meddlesome have all been used to describe his efforts to make the Redskins relevant.

Part of the football sideshow has included on-field appearances by Snyder's BFF, Tom Cruise. It seems that the Redskins owner has a thing for Hollywood. So it's not altogether surprising that Snyder's firm, Red Zone Capital Partners, allegedly engineered the sale of the TV rights to the Golden Globe Awards. One problem: according to a lawsuit filed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), Snyder and his partners didn't own those rights.

Details via the Washington City Paper:

In 1983, HFPA brought in Dick Clark Productions (dcp) to produce the telecasts of its show, and the two entities split the profits. That arrangement has been maintained through the decades through a series of contract extensions; the current contract between HFPA and dcp was signed in 2001, and expires with next week's telecast of the 2011 Golden Globe Awards on NBC.

The McLean-based private investment fund Snyder controls, Red Zone Capital Partners, bought dcp in 2007. (Dick Clark himself had sold the company that bears his name in 2002.) The suit says dcp has since been reduced to nothing more than an "alter ego" of Red Zone. HFPA now says what had been a long, beautiful relationship between the association and dcp was destroyed on Sept. 30, 2010, when dcp sold the broadcast rights of the Globes to NBC through 2018.

According to the complaint, that deal was made "without HFPA's consent or authorization."

Neither HFPA nor dcp would comment on the lawsuit, although Washington City Paper's Dave McKenna raises an interesting question: "Why the brazen business behaviors? Perhaps Snyder's hoarding money in anticipation of the NFL strike next season, which would put a huge crimp in his cash flow."

For now, though, these are just allegations. As for Golden Globe-related lawsuits, Given all the mock outrage about his performance as host, I'm shocked nobody brought a claim against Ricky Gervais.