The CEO of the Oakland Coliseum remains in hot water over a consulting agreement he made with Redwood City-based RingCentral, whom he wanted to charge a $50,000 "finder's fee" for securing a naming-rights deal for the stadium.
Scott McKibben reportedly tried multiple times to invoice RingCentral for the fee, which he apparently never collected, and then was forced to resign as CEO of the Coliseum after a closed-door board meeting on August 8. As the Mercury News reports, McKibben may end up facing criminal or civil prosecution nonetheless, though no charges have yet been filed.
McKibben earned $300,000 a year working at the Coliseum, and this was after getting the stadium's board to match an offer he was made to run Levi's Stadium in 2017. But according to the Mercury News, McKibben has been facing a lien from the IRS of over $94,000 since last year, related to his work as CEO of the A-11 Football League — the failed alternative league to the NFL that also owes back taxes.
The Chronicle previously reported that McKibben had abruptly resigned over conflict-of-interest issues raised over the $1 million naming-rights deal with RingCentral, though the details were yet unclear.
Now, per the Mercury-News, McKibben says he was unaware of the state Political Reform Act that prevents him being an independent contractor while serving as a public employee of the Coliseum. A separate law, however, prohibits public employees from ever having a financial stake in a contract that they help negotiate — and that is where the Alameda County DA's office has to decide if it will pursue charges, which could be punishable with jail time.
Meanwhile, it looks all but certain that we will not have to call it the RingCentral Coliseum, because as ethics expert Michael Martello tells the Merc, any individual could sue to undo the deal if it was entered into illegally.