Vicki Ueberroth Booth, daughter of former Major League Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, has gone to court in Southern California to gain control of her family\u2019s trust, claiming millions of dollars have been wasted or misused over the last two years while Peter and his wife Virginia are in cognitive decline.<\/p>\n
Peter Ueberroth, now 88, spearheaded the first privately run Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, a commercialization effort that helped revitalize the Games. Later that year, he took the lead job at MLB, which he held until 1989.<\/p>\n
But as Ueberoth and his wife, 86, have seen their health decline in recent years, their daughter says they\u2019ve been exploited by a family friend, attorney Michael McKee, who took over as trustee of the family\u2019s trust in April 2024. McKee, 80, is also the chairman of Tiger Woods\u2019 charity, the TGR Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than acting as a neutral fiduciary, McKee repeatedly subordinated the interests of the trustors and beneficiaries to those of third parties, including himself, in direct violation of his statutory duties,\u201d Ueberroth Booth, 63, contends in the filing in California Superior Court. \u201cThis disregard for fiduciary responsibility was compounded by McKee\u2019s persistent concealment of material information.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Athletic has reached out to McKee and the TGR Foundation for comment and will update this story if they respond.<\/p>\n
The petition asks for McKee to be ousted as trustee in favor of Ueberroth Booth, to turn over certain records and to pay back money for alleged breaches of trust.<\/p>\n
From 2022 forward, \u201cPeter and Virginia lost the ability to evaluate complex financial transactions or manage assets, especially in unsupervised or conflicted settings,\u201d according to their daughter\u2019s petition. In March 2024, Peter was diagnosed with \u201cmoderate dementia, with strong concern for Alzheimer\u2019s disease.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next month, McKee, who had worked for Ueberroth\u2019s private-equity firm Contrarian since at least 2018, became trustee and proceeded to conceal \u201cthe use of Peter\u2019s signature after Peter had been deemed incapacitated,\u201d the filing claims, adding the \u201cauthorizations were executed at a time when Peter lacked capacity and could not provide informed consent.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to The Athletic, Ueberroth Booth\u2019s attorney, Gabrielle Vidal, said: \u201cIt has been deeply distressing for Vicki and her family to watch Mr. McKee, someone her parents once trusted, betray that trust at a time when they are most vulnerable. Filing this petition \u2014 and bringing sensitive and private family matters into a public forum \u2014 was not a decision made lightly, but a necessary one to protect their parents, safeguard what they built, and ensure that their wishes are honored. Mr. McKee\u2019s continued breaches of his fiduciary duties and his misuse of authority have left her no choice but to seek the court\u2019s intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n
The petition also alleges that McKee should have intervened in efforts undertaken by two other associates who had longstanding professional relationships with the Ueberroths. The associates allegedly altered access to the Ueberroths\u2019 bank account, including by changing the \u201cdesignated email address to one created and controlled by them.\u201d<\/p>\n
In December 2023, before McKee was trustee, the associates also allegedly transferred $2 million to \u201ca Los Angeles-based charity with no prior relationship to Peter or Virginia, falsely representing that Peter had authorized the transfer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ueberroth Booth noticed that the transfer was \u201cwholly inconsistent with Peter\u2019s and Virginia\u2019s long\u2011standing charitable practices,\u201d the petition says, and she got the money redirected to a different charity.<\/p>\n
The two associates \u201ctried to isolate Peter, pressure him to dismiss caregivers, and disregard medical directives,\u201d Ueberroth Booth alleged. \u201cThese concerns were escalated to McKee, who again failed to act.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Athletic has attempted to reach Contrarian and the two associates for comment, and will update this story if they respond.<\/p>\n
Ueberroth Booth\u2019s petition also questions McKee and the family trust\u2019s continued operation of Contrarian, which she alleges is a vehicle for excessive compensation, overhead and personal spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver fifteen months, Contrarian cost the Trust nearly $1 million, including $205,062.73 in rent and overhead, $32,317.41 in meals, Starbucks, car washes, and chauffeur services,\u201d according to the petition.<\/p>\n
The petition also claims a former Orange County sheriff contacted Ueberroth Booth to tell her Peter appeared vulnerable and was being taken advantage of.<\/p>\n
Peter \u201cdeveloped paranoid ideation and other manifestations of cognitive impairment,\u201d the filing reads. \u201cDespite repeated urging by family members, Peter consistently refused medical evaluation or intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n
The petition says the family received recommendations to provide both elderly Ueberroths with round-the-clock care.<\/p>\n
In two years, the Summer Olympics are set to return to Los Angeles for the first time since the Games Peter headed up in 1984. Born in Illinois in 1937, Peter was an airline executive and travel entrepreneur who, by 1980, had built the nation\u2019s second-largest travel company<\/a> behind American Express.<\/p>\n Peter became baseball\u2019s sixth commissioner in the fall of 1984. He pushed for player drug testing and, just as he had with the Olympics, focused on television revenues<\/a>.<\/p>\n Peter\u2019s tenure also includes baseball\u2019s famous collusion grievances, filed from 1986-88, when players brought allegations that owners had tried to work together to suppress salaries and free agency. The grievance process continued after Ueberroth left office, and eventually, owners agreed to a $280 million settlement<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vicki Ueberroth Booth, daughter of former Major League Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, has gone to court in Southern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,755,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-581143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}