Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. has repeatedly used a 164-foot yacht owned by NASCAR mogul Rick Hendrick for family vacations after the university committed to a lucrative sponsorship deal with Hendrick Motorsports, according to former and current Liberty employees and social media posts by the Falwell family.
It was on his most recent yacht vacation — spent with his wife, Becki, their children and friends — that the evangelical leader and prominent supporter of President Donald Trump posted a photo with his pants unzipped and arm around his wife’s personal assistant that led to his indefinite suspension.
While much of the controversy surrounding Falwell has focused on his personal behavior — especially in light of Liberty’s conservative Christian values — some trustees are also concerned about his oversight of university funds, current and former Liberty officials told POLITICO.
Since at least 2018, Liberty has sponsored a car with Hendrick Motorsports, a contract that typically runs well into the millions of dollars. The contract is private, so exactly how much the university is paying for the multiyear sponsorship is unknown. In 2017, for instance, Farmers Insurance paid Hendrick Motorsports $8 million for a similar NASCAR team sponsorship, according to court filings about the contract later obtained by ESPN. A Liberty employee familiar with the university’s contract with Hendrick Motorsports said the sponsorship payment varies slightly by year but amounts to roughly $6 million annually.
Hendrick, who has spoken at Liberty’s commencement and whose company helped start an auto dealership management program at its business school, did not respond to a request for comment.
With six bedrooms for guests, marble bathrooms, three wet bars and three separate sun decks, Hendrick’s yacht, Wheels, is renowned for its luxury. It carries jet skis, 15 drop-down televisions, and a 19th century dining table made out of North Carolina walnut in its formal dining room, according to a promotional video and brochure for chartering the yacht. There is space for a crew of eight.
In July 2019, Falwell posted a series of photos of him and his family in the Bahamas swimming with sharks, cave diving, fishing in a "Hendrick Marine" t-shirt and, according to a caption, snorkeling in the decaying ruins of a drug smuggling plane once used by Pablo Escobar. The posts were accompanied by a photo of Wheels.
The previous summer, Falwell posted photos of himself and his family sunbathing, touring and jet-skiing on a yacht in Greece. He did not mention Wheels, but identified the yacht as belonging to a Liberty supporter.
“The only thing better than working with @libertyuniversity supporters on their yacht in the Greek Islands is working with them on both of their yachts!” he said in an Instagram post in June 2018.
The Falwells’ most recent vacation, this July in Key West, was perhaps the most celebratory of all: Falwell’s daughter Caroline got engaged.
In a video posted on Instagram, Falwell’s future son-in-law posted a video of himself, wearing all white, kneeling beneath a white arch by the ocean and proposing to Caroline Falwell. Hovering behind them offshore is Wheels.
Falwell, too, posted photos of the moment, including the family cheering on the Wheels’ tender boat — called Reel Wheels — and a shot of Falwell in a Pink Floyd t-shirt with his smiling wife and daughter.
Falwell did not respond to emailed requests for comment on whether he paid anything for the use of the yacht. Wheels typically rents for at least $200,000 for one week, according to online information about chartering the boat.
A Hendrick Motorsports spokesperson told POLITICO that the use of the yacht is not part of Hendrick Motorsports’ agreement with Liberty University. The sponsorship of NASCAR, and Hendrick Motorsports' work to develop an auto dealership management program at Liberty, are part of a relationship between the two entities, not Falwell and Hendrick personally, the spokesperson said.
Through its arrangement with Hendrick Motorsports, Liberty has been sponsoring one of its drivers, William Byron — a Liberty online student — since at least 2018. Last fall, the university extended its sponsorship through 2021. Liberty is a significant sponsor of Byron’s team, so much so that he wears Liberty’s navy and red colors and drives a car with Liberty’s logo splashed across its hood.
A Liberty spokesperson declined to answer questions about whether use of the yacht was in any way related to the sponsorship agreement.
The employee with knowledge of the sponsorship deal said the yacht "was never used for university business, never used to try to better the university. It was always Jerry, Becki. Always."
Especially if the use of the yacht was limited to Falwell and his personal guests, the arrangement might raise questions about whether Falwell's vacations are a motivation for Liberty’s ongoing sponsor of Hendricks' NASCAR team, said Eve Borenstein, a nonprofit lawyer at the firm of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg.
“All of the dollars they have, every single asset they have, has to be spent to charitable ends,” Borenstein said.
This is not the first time that Falwell’s financial oversight of the university has come under scrutiny. In 2019, POLITICO reported that Liberty University hired a company owned by Falwell’s son, Trey, to manage a shopping center owned by the school, that the university has issued generous loans and contracts to Falwell’s friends and that the university has sold property to Falwell’s friends and family members without always disclosing the relationships in tax records.
The board placed Falwell on indefinite leave on Aug. 7 after he posted to Instagram and then quickly deleted a photo of himself aboard Wheels. Dressed in jeans with his zipper undone and underwear visible, he had his arm around a woman whose shorts were similarly unzipped. There was a dark-colored liquid in his hand. The drink, he quipped in a caption, was “black water.”
The board did not say when or if Falwell Jr. would return to his post.
"To support Jerry through this period, we ask that our entire community lift him up in prayer so he may be able to fulfill God’s purpose for him and for Liberty University,” said Jerry Prevo, chair of the board and now the interim president of Liberty University, in a statement at the time.
Shortly before being placed on indefinite leave, Falwell gave an interview to a local talk radio host and tried to offer context for his Instagram post, explaining that the woman in the picture was pregnant and couldn’t zip up her shorts and that he unzipped his own pants to put her at ease.
“I just put my belly out like hers. She’s my wife’s assistant, and she’s a sweetheart. I should never have put it up and embarrassed her,” Falwell Jr. said, adding that he told his wife and kids he's “gonna try to be a good boy” in the future.
“It was a costume party. And we were on vacation," Falwell said. "Long story short, it was just in good fun. That’s it.”
"use" - Google News
August 21, 2020 at 12:40AM
https://ift.tt/2E9uEoE
Falwell’s use of yacht comes under scrutiny - POLITICO
"use" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2P05tHQ
https://ift.tt/2YCP29R
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Falwell’s use of yacht comes under scrutiny - POLITICO"
Post a Comment