The facts
Mina Kim is the largest investor in the Women's Pro Baseball League, having put in $500,000, according to Front Office Sports. Over the summer she filed a books-and-records case in the Delaware Court of Chancery demanding financial records from CEO Keith Stein and the league, citing "mounting red flags" and "improper stonewalling". Earlier this month a confidential filing that was accidentally made public revealed Kim had been "offered an unauthorized $600,000 payment to abandon" her case; she rejected it, and the filing has since been put back under seal. On Wednesday morning Stein emailed investors that Kim had been "replaced" as a board member and said the league would move to dismiss her case, since Delaware law requires board membership for her claim. Stein said he takes "no personal satisfaction" in the move. Kim is the second board member Stein has removed in recent months; the remaining board was put in place by Stein and includes his former brother-in-law.
Our take
Keith Stein is the kind of CEO who hears a request for the books and reaches for his checkbook. When the league's biggest investor asked to see the Women's Pro Baseball League's finances, her court filing says she was offered an unauthorized $600,000 payment to drop the case. She said no. So Stein did the next most transparent thing he could think of: he fired her from the board, then emailed investors to announce he takes "no personal satisfaction" in the firing while extending Kim his "olive branch." An olive branch with a pink slip stapled to it is not an olive branch. It is a hostage note.
Here is the part that should make every other investor's asshole pucker: that $600,000 offer was, per Kim's court filing, unauthorized, not approved by the WPBL's board or "anyone with authority to bind WPBL." Somebody dangled six hundred grand of mystery money to make a transparency lawsuit disappear, and the league's own paperwork says nobody in charge signed off on it. That is not a settlement. That is a bribe with the serial numbers filed off.
And the cherry on this shit sundae: Stein says he put roughly $225,000 into the league and owns about 65% of it. Kim, who put in $500,000, says no records of his investment exist. The man running the league cannot produce receipts for his own money, announced an audit from a "national accounting firm" his people won't name, and just fired the one board member who kept asking questions. Stein's former brother-in-law still has a seat. Dave Stewart is getting one. The books stay closed. Some leagues build dynasties. This one is building a cover-up and charging for tickets.
