John Moores
On top of his public recognition as the majority owner of San Diego’s professional baseball team, John Moores is active in the community and widely known for contributions and affiliations across the board. But he, just like everybody else, has a few skeletons in his closet—including divorce and fraud.
OR
He’s a widely known member of the San Diego community for his status as an owner of the multimillion dollar Padres, the Major League Baseball team that calls San Diego home; he is extensively recognized for his numerous philanthropic efforts, particularly in the San Diego area; still, his record has been tainted with recent fraud speculation for his affiliation with Peregrine Systems, for which he is the former chairman.
Moores was dismissed of charges last December in a case against him from 2002. In a case filed against San Diego software developer Peregrine Systems, for
which Moores was the company’s largest single investor, he became the center of the lawsuit—large in part because he owned and/or controlled two-thirds of the company and also served as chairman of the company for some time. In May 2002, the company disclosed financial irregularities which led to “one of San Diego’s biggest corporate accounting scandals.” Investor losses are estimated to be somewhere in the billions.
By 2001, though, Moores had sold most of his ownership in the business; more than $600 million worth of shares were sold during the fraud. In his sales, investors argued that Moores and others knew of the fraud and violated their duties in their neglecting to inform other investors. Although 17 people had cases filed against them, Moores himself did not have any directly filed in his name. Because there is no proof that Moores was aware of what was going on at the company, the case against him is not very strong and, therefore, his involvement has been dismissed from the investigation.
Additional Reporting:
Moores, current majority owner of the San Diego Padres, was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas to a low-income family. He started his university education at Texas A&M University, but quit before completion. Instead, he became a computer programmer for IBM. He returned to his university education later, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the University of Houston. It wasn’t until 1994, after several years working with computer software, that Moores purchased the San Diego Padres from Tom Werner.
Most recently, Moores and his wife Rebecca have divorced. Court records show files submitted by Rebecca against John in late 2007, after more than 44 years of marriage, for which she claimed irreconcilable differences. Public records do not show how assets will be divided although, in California, a spouse is entitled to half of all community property—community property being “assets acquired or income earned by a married person while living with his or her spouse.”
Since 1994, John has owned 80 percent of the Padres, worth a reported $80 million. And, according to Forbes magazine, his estimated net worth is close to $750 million—the team’s worth estimated at more than $360 million. In addition to his majority ownership of the Padres, John is also chairman of JMI Realty, the developer of the Petco Park district.
John and his then wife Rebecca, who were married in 1963, donated $21 million to establish the John and Rebecca Moores Cancer Center at the University of California San Diego among a number of other philanthropic efforts. The Moores family has also supported the ACLU, the San Diego Zoo, San Diego State University, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Center for Children, St. Vincent de Paul Villages, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the Scripps Research Institute for Children and Neglected Diseases.
As far as contributions are concerned, Moores gave $51 million to the University of Houston in 1991—the largest in U.S. history to a public university—as well as $21 million to the University of San Diego and over $20 million to San Diego State University.
Furthermore, Moores’ recorded campaign contributions for 2007 alone add up to $320,300—for which records show the bulk of his contributions supporting the Democratic Party.
Sources:
http://arcc.co.san-diego.ca.us/arcc/services/grantorgrantee/search.aspx
LexisNexis
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_41/b3803060.htm
San Diego Union Tribune Articles
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20071207-9999-1b7peregrine.html
http://search.marquiswhoswho.com/executable/SearchResults.aspx?db=E
http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/contributor.phtml?si=20065&d=11507226
http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1012893&session=2007
http://www.sandiego.gov//city-clerk/officialdocs/index.shtml
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
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