Joe Biden’s Department of Justice has informed the PGA Tour that it has officially launched a probe into the proposed merger between the U.S. golf giant and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
Last week, the Tour made the shocking announcement that it was merging with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), despite months of Tour representatives accusing LIV supporters of “sportswashing” Saudi Arabia’s “blood money.”
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan addresses the media during a press conference before the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands on June 22, 2022, in Cromwell, Connecticut. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
The DOJ is now looking into the merger proposal for possible antitrust violations, according to Fox News.
This latest probe comes a year after the DOJ put the PGA Tour under a microscope for imposing indefinite suspensions and huge fines on PGA players who left the Tour to play for LIV. The DOJ also suspects antitrust violations.
The new investigation comes a week after the PGA Tour announced the merger between itself, the DP World Tour, and LIV into a new “collectively owned, for-profit entity,” which is thus far unnamed. PIF will invest up to two billion dollars into the new concern.
A member of the U.S. Senate has also started looking into the merger. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) opened an investigation on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) have called upon the Justice Department to open an anti-trust investigation.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on June 13, 2023, in Washington, DC. The committee held the hearing to review “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Semi-Annual Report to Congress.” (Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images)
Oddly, only days after the merger was announced, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced he was stepping back from control of the Tour for a “medical leave of absence.”
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