A financial adviser to former Major League baseball player Mo Vaughn is claiming that he threatened and intimidated her after she tried to rein in his "insane spending habits."
It is the latest development in a case that he initiated against Ra Shonda Kay Marshall of Columbus, Ohio-based RKM Business Services, who advised the three-time All-Star on business, real estate and tax matters until they parted ways last year.
Mr. Vaughn — the former Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Anaheim Angels slugger — filed a suit in February alleging that she stole more $1 million from his accounts over a period of several years and used a good portion of this money to buy herself a $1.7 million house in Powell, Ohio.
He isn't suing only to recoup the $1 million that Ms. Marshall allegedly stole; he is also after an additional $5 million for punitive damages, according to the original suit.
EXCESSIVE SPENDING
Now Ms. Marshall is swinging back at the slugger. In a formal response filed April 9, she said that she "devoted much of her time and effort trying to prevent [Mr. Vaughn] from a lifestyle of excessive spending and extravagant and lavish expenditures."
Court records show that he agreed to pay her company $360,000 a year for her services, plus a one-time fee of $150,000.
When Mr. Vaughn became angered "at the efforts to get him to live within his means," he made "threats to try to intimidate her," and began making false claims that Ms. Marshall stole or diverted money from his accounts, the adviser claimed in a court filing.
John Stock, an attorney from Benesch Freidlander Coplan & Arnoff LLP of Columbus, Ohio, who is representing Mr. Vaughn, didn't return a call seeking comment on her recent claims.
Attorneys for Ms. Marshall, in an e-mail, declined to make their client available for an interview, but they asserted that Mr. Vaughn's claims are all false and will eventually be thrown out of court.
She and her firm "tried to bring sanity to Mr. Vaughn's insane spending habits," wrote J. Stephen Teetor, an attorney with Isaac Brant Ledman & Teetor LLP, a law firm in Columbus.
Although the specifics of this case are extreme — and of course largely unsubstantiated at the moment — financial advisers noted that such a situation highlights one of the most considerable challenges they face in working with professional athletes.
An adviser's primary goal is to act in a client's best interests and make sure that they are spending, saving and investing in a financially prudent way.
"But sometimes these clients don't want to spend in a very prudent way," said Christopher Franklin, chief executive and founder of Titan Financial Services Inc. in Waldorf, Md., which advises a number of professional basketball players. "It's the single biggest argument we'll have with a pro athlete," added Mr. Franklin, whose firm advises about $100 million.
"There's this thinking among athletes that you are what you drive or what you wear," said Andrew Koerner, president of Koerner Walker Wealth Management in Princeton, N.J., which advises $400 million and boasts more than a dozen pro football players as clients. "But it's our job to emphasize growth and long-term wealth creation," he said.
To balance short-term spending needs with long-term savings tactics, many advisers will calculate allowances that their athlete clients can spend during a month.
E-mail Mark Bruno at [email protected].
