Orioles Owner’s Son Sues Family Over Control of Franchise, per Report
Louis Angelos, son of Orioles owner Peter Angelos, is suing his brother, John P. Angelos, and mother, Georgia Kousouris, accusing them of taking control of the organization against Peter’s wishes while Peter’s health declined, The Athletic reports.
In the suit, Louis claims that John used his 80-year-old mother to gain full control of the team. The Baltimore Banner was the first to report the news.
“He was able to prey upon her understandable concerns about the businesses her husband had worked his entire life to build. He also preyed upon her fear of abandonment, exploding into tantrums and threatening to leave and move out of state if he did not get his way,” the suit said, via The Athletic.
Additionally, the suit accuses John of withholding information from his mother to make his brother look worse.
“John concealed and misrepresented the facts, feeding his mother a steady diet of half-truths and prevarications,” it read. “He acted unilaterally and informed Mrs. Angelos about his unilateral actions only after the fact. He worked steadily, and stealthily, to undermine her confidence in his brother, Lou, and to exclude him from business matters at the Orioles.”
The suit claims Georgia came to the conclusion that the family should sell the team, and she believed John agreed when he actually used “everything in his power to stall and, ultimately, thwart plans to sell the club” like pushing away an apparently interested group of buyers. Instead, John allegedly plans to keep the team without having to report to anyone.
In 2017, Peter Angelos became disabled from a heart issue, so he created a family trust where Georgia, John and Louis became co-trustees, before his health got worse a year later. According to the suit, John “seized control” of the trust in 2018, which allowed him to “squeeze Lou into submission” and kept important information from his brother.
Finally, the suit argues that the 92-year-old Peter would “vociferously reject any effort by an adult child presuming to override his will” if he was able to get involved.
Louis Angelos’s goal with the suit is to remove his mother and brother as co-trustees along with taking back “tens of millions” in assets that John allegedly controlled without his brother’s approval.
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