Pro-Football Inc., the company that owns the Washington Commanders, will have to pay the District government and its residents a combined $625,000 to settle a lawsuit over the team’s handling of security deposits for season ticket holders.

D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced the settlement Monday.

“Rather than being transparent and upfront in their ticket sale practices, the Commanders unlawfully took advantage of their fan base, holding on to security deposits instead of returning them,” Schwalb said in a press release.

The lawsuit, which former D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine filed in November, alleged that the Commanders had cheated D.C. residents out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in deposits for season tickets. In doing so, the Attorney General’s office argued, the team violated the District’s consumer protection laws.

The Commanders’ scheme, the Attorney General’s office said, went like this: the team sold premium seating tickets to fans and required a large security deposit from those who purchased them. And while the team promised that the ticket holders would get their deposits back 30 days after the ticket contract expired, they actually held on to the funds, in many cases for years, and used the money for other purposes.

“When ticket holders requested that their deposits be returned, the Commanders intentionally complicated the return process by imposing extra, burdensome conditions that were not previously adequately disclosed,” wrote the Attorney General’s office when they announced the suit.

Racine had strong words for the team at the time, writing in a press release announcing the suit that “the Commanders’ arrogance and blatant disregard for the law is a slap in the face to District residents who have supported the team for decades.”

Attorneys for the team denied all the allegations in the suit and maintained that the team did not violate any consumer protection laws.

“We have not accepted security deposits or seat licenses in more than a decade and have been actively working to return any remaining deposits since 2014,” a spokesperson for the team wrote in an emailed statement to DCist/WAMU. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement on the matter with the DC Attorney General and will work with the office to fulfill our obligations to our fans.”

Under the terms of the settlement — which does not constitute an admission of fault on the part of the team – Pro-Football Inc. will have to make every effort to find impacted fans and return their security deposit. The OAG estimates that the team likely owes more than $200,000 to the affected ticket holders.

“Our office will maintain strict oversight over the Commanders to ensure all necessary steps are taken to reimburse fans for the refunds they are entitled to,” Schwalb wrote in the press release.

The company will also have to pay the District $425,000 for a combination of attorneys’ fees, costs associated with the investigation, and restitution.

While this case over security deposits is settled, the Commanders remain embroiled in another ongoing lawsuit Racine filed last year against both the team and the NFL. The suit alleged that both Commanders owner Dan Snyder and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell lied to fans about an investigation into workplace conduct and sexual harassment in order to protect the image of the team and the league.

In 2020, the Washington Post reported on allegations of sexual harassment and a toxic culture at the team. The reporting led to an investigation from attorney Beth Wilkinson, which the NFL later took over.

The team said it made some changes in response: For example, Snyder transferred day-to-day operations over to his wife, Tanya Snyder, and the NFL issued Snyder a $10 million fine.

But in the years since the Washington Post’s initial report, more has come to light about sexual harassment at the team — and Snyder’s role in trying to discredit employees who came forward with allegations. Last year, for example, a Congressional investigation found that Snyder and his lawyers conducted a “shadow investigation” aimed at undermining journalists, former employees, and accusers.

It was that same Congressional committee that tipped off D.C. officials to the Commanders’ practice of withholding ticket deposits from fans.

This story has been updated with comment from the Washington Commanders.