Reviled former Liverpool Football Club owner Tom Hicks is being sued by former investors in the Texas Rangers – another of his former sports franchises.
In a lawsuit filed in Dallas, Hicks stands accused of using the Rangers to line his own pockets at the expense of the team.
The suit was filed for the Rangers partnership under bankruptcy administrator Alan Jacobs and claims Hicks ignored financial obligations to the team and bought land for parking lots and roads to build “a real estate empire on the backs of the Texas Rangers’ players and creditors and fans.”
The suit alleges the Rangers were left “without sufficient money to field a competitive baseball team.”
A spokeswoman for Hicks’s company said the allegations were “absolutely untrue.”
The Rangers emerged from bankruptcy last year with new ownership, which is not involved in the lawsuit.
Hicks and fellow American George Gillett bought Liverpool in 2007, but were forced to sell last year after the club amassed a huge amount of debt.
Hicks denied that the club’s financial problems were too severe to solve and called the sale to New England Sports Ventures – owners of baseball’s Boston Red Sox – an “epic swindle”.
In February a High Court judge in London cleared the way for Hicks to pursue a damages claim in Britain.
But Mr Justice Floyd also dismissed attempts by Hicks’s lawyers to block claims by Martin Broughton, the former chairman of Liverpool, who is seeking damages against Hicks for his actions while owner.
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