Report: Tom Brady’s Charity Foundation Accused of Donating to His Own For-Profit Company

Tom Brady
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According to reports, Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady’s charity TB12 Foundation, has given more than a million dollars to his for-profit company TB12 Inc.

TB12 Inc, a sports wellness company that sells supplements and “sports therapy” sessions, has reportedly received more than $1.6 million from TB12 Foundation, a charitable organization founded to help athletes to avoid injuries, improve longevity, and stay healthy, according to an exclusive report from the Daily Beast.

According to tax records, the Beast reports that the TB12 Foundation paid $113,786 to TB12 Inc in 2016. For the next two years, the foundation gave more than $600,000 to Brady’s for-profit company. And in 2019, the foundation paid out another $424,921 to TB12 Inc, according to the report.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady poses during the TB12 Grand Opening Event at the TB12 Performance & Recovery Center in Boston on Sep. 17,...

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady poses during the TB12 Grand Opening Event at the TB12 Performance & Recovery Center in Boston on Sep. 17, 2019. (Nic Antaya for The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

According to the Daily Beast:

Brady, who earned $350 million during his two decades with the New England Patriots, has given a small fraction of his riches to his own charity, with little over $200,000 in donations, according to the TB12 Foundation’s tax filings.

The quarterback’s for-profit company TB12, Inc. is the sole provider of ‘sports therapy’ sessions for the TB12 Foundation. Since it launched in 2015, the foundation has paid Brady’s firm a total of more than $1.6 million for its services, and it’s the only company listed as an ‘independent contractor’ for such treatments.

According to Laurie Styron, executive director of independent nonprofit monitor CharityWatch, the whole arrangement is unusual. “I can say that I haven’t come across this type of arrangement too often in my 19 years of nonprofit financial analysis in a watchdog role,” Styron told the Daily Beast.

“A charity’s board members have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of the charity at all times,” Styron exclaimed. “Doing so becomes more complicated when there are competing interests between nonprofit and for-profit legal entities, particularly when the two organizations share key staff who have to balance their fiduciary duties between the two. It has the potential to get tricky if there aren’t adequate safeguards in place.”

View of TB12 Sports Therapy Center at Patriot Place on March 17, 2020 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady...

A view of TB12 Sports Therapy Center at Patriot Place on March 17, 2020, in Foxborough, Massachusetts. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady announced he will leave the Patriots after 20 years with the team to enter free agency. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Tom Brady is having a very bad year. With a bad season mounting for the Buccaneers, a financial debacle in his investment in the cryptocurrency company FTX — which is being accused of running a ponzi scheme — and a divorce that is cleaving his family in two, things are not going well.

And this controversy surrounding his charity isn’t helping.

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