Riddell Sports Group

Public filings and contemporary reporting show that Jeffrey Epstein's link to Riddell was limited to a one-time, $1.6 million minority investment in 1988. He never sat on the board, never held voting control, and did not appear in any later equity or debt documents after that year. Control of the helmet maker passed to other owners—first the public markets, then the private-equity firm Fenway Partners in 2003, and finally the Easton-Bell/BRG Sports holding structure that still houses Riddell today.¹²³⁴

  Epstein's 1988 placement

Vanity Fair's 2003 profile cites SEC records showing Epstein wiring $1.6 million into Riddell Sports Inc. alongside theater owner Robert Nederlander and attorney Leonard Toboroff in 1988.¹² A separate litigation exhibit reproduces the same figure and confirms no board seat or control rights attached to the stake.² Financial swindler Steven Hoffenberg later claimed the capital was actually his loan to Epstein, underscoring how limited—and possibly leveraged—the position was.¹ No subsequent SEC filing or press item lists Epstein among insiders once Riddell began filing annual reports in the 1990s.⁵

  Who has owned Riddell since 1988?

  Bottom line

Epstein was a small, short-term investor, not an owner or operator. All controlling transactions—from Fenway Partners' 2003 buy-out through today's prospective sale—occurred without his involvement. Current filings and press statements list Fenway Partners and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan—not Epstein—as the equity holders behind Riddell.³⁴

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  References

  Footnotes

1. Vanity Fair ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. DocumentCloud – Litigation exhibits ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Fenway Partners ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. MarketScreener ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. SEC Form 10-K, 1998 ↩ ↩²

6. Wikipedia – Fenway Partners ↩

7. Buyouts Insider ↩

8. Deseret News ↩

9. Sports Business Journal ↩

10. SGB Online ↩

11. New York Post ↩

12. Riddell Newsroom ↩

13. Reuters ↩