More heat for Tampa Bay Lightning co-owner Len Barrie over resort money

Accusations against Len Barrie intensified Wednesday when a member of the executive committee of Bear Mountain Resort accused the Lightning co-owner of misappropriating millions from the company to help buy a 35 percent share of the NHL team.

"My number was, between $16 (million) and $20 million was misappropriated over that period of time," Scott Bye said.

To which Barrie answered, "If there was anything wrong with what I did, wouldn't the bank have pulled my loan?"

The back and forth came one day after a St. Petersburg Times report that a confidential December audit of the golf community and spa in Victoria, British Columbia, said up to $25.8 million may have been inappropriately diverted to Barrie and companies he controlled.

So upset was the Victoria accounting firm Norgaard Neale Camden at its belief Bear Mountain's executive committee did not address practices it termed in a letter "improper and, in some cases, illegal," it resigned in April as the resort's auditor.

The back-and-forth also comes amid a contentious fight for team ownership between Barrie and co-owner Oren Koules, both of whom need financing to buy out the other.

Bye described a Jan. 21 Bear Mountain executive committee meeting during which discussions included about 20 transactions cited by the auditor's report as questionable.

Bye said Barrie admitted moving funds to buy the Lightning. And though Barrie told Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper that proper explanations were made, Bye said, "There was no agreement from the executive committee to move the funds."

The NHL declined to comment.

No legal action has been taken against Barrie, and former and current NHL players who invested in Bear Mountain have not been accused of wrongdoing.

Bye, who runs SDB Sports Management in Fargo, N.D., is a financial adviser for Sharks defenseman and Bear Mountain investor Rob Blake. Bye said Barrie invited him to join the executive committee when the resort was rapidly expanding "and it looked like we were going to need an audit for bank financing purposes."

Bye said he did not leak the audit from Norgaard Neale Camden but said as an "audit committee of one … I worked with the auditors when it was put together. I stand by the audit report. For my own satisfaction, I'm not going to stand by and watch anybody make me look like I didn't follow up. I've been on this from Day 1 going back two years."

Barrie has insisted his Bear Mountain debt was $5 million and was paid back or accounted for. The audit and Bye said no money has been repaid.

"Me and him have never agreed," Barrie said, "so we're never going to agree."

"Without trying to be smug here, Len has what more than myself has termed voodoo math," Bye said. "He pulls out a white board, and we all are baffled how he comes up with things."

One thing they agree on is the media is no place for this fight.

"It's a private company," Barrie said. "It's not the place to talk about in the paper."

"This has helped nobody," Bye said but added, "Len will say $5 million, but I'll tell you what, does it matter if it's $5 million or $16 million? It shouldn't have happened."

coyotes: BlackBerry billionaire James Balsillie proposed having the team begin the season in Arizona, then move to Ontario as quickly as possible.

Balsillie's attorney, Jeff Keffler, made the comment after Bankruptcy Judge Redfield T. Baum in Phoenix said it was "reasonably probable" that he could not resolve the many issues in the messy fight over the team by a Sept. 14 deadline set by Balsillie, who has bid $212.5 million for the team, contingent on moving it to Hamilton, Ontario.

The comments came during a hearing on whether the judge should overrule the Board of Governor's 26-0 vote rejecting Balsillie as a potential owner.

When any ruling will come wasn't known. The judge may wait until the Sept. 10 auction of the team. Two groups are bidding to keep the team in Arizona; one of them is the NHL.

Canucks: Goalie and team captain Roberto Luongo signed a 12-year, $64 million contract extension, saying he believes Vancouver can win the Stanley Cup. Luongo, 30, could have been a free agent next summer.

Information from Times wires was used in this report. Damian Cristodero can be reached at cristodero@sptimes.com