The Matt Leinart Flag Football League, a for-profit corporation, has since February 2013 improperly received nearly $160,000 in reduced field rental fees as well as other benefits by claiming to be a non-profit organization to Orange County park districts, cities and school districts, the Orange County Register has learned.

During that same period the former USC Heisman Trophy winner’s for-profit league generated nearly $1 million in revenues. In Irvine and Newport Beach alone, the for-profit corporation received $830,450 in participation fees from Orange County families during that period.

Between February 2013 and April 2015, the Matt Leinart Flag Football League avoided paying $45,163 in field rental fees in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District because MLFFL officials represented the league as a non-profit group to school district officials, according to billing documents, emails, applications and Internal Revenue Service records obtained by the Register.

The Register reported earlier this year that Leinart Flag Football avoided paying $49,648 in field rental fees to the Costa Mesa Parks Department and $63,640 in field rental and other fees to the City of Irvine. With the $45,163 in underpaid rental fees to the Newport Mesa USD, the for-profit Leinart league has avoided paying $158,451 in field rental fees around Orange County in the past 21/2 years.

In addition to improperly receiving reduced field rental fees and other benefits, national non-profit experts said that Leinart spending nearly a third of his non-profit’s budget to pay his brother as the organization’s executive director is another “major issue” of concern.

The Matt Leinart Flag Football League, registered as a for-profit company since 2011, has used the Matt Leinart Foundation’s non-profit status to secure access and special rates for sports fields around Orange County that otherwise would not have been available to the league.

Ryan Leinart, Matt’s brother and executive director of both the Matt Leinart Flag Football League and the Leinart Foundation, acknowledged to the Register that although the “Matt Leinart (Flag Football) League is a separate entity” from the Leinart Foundation, the league used the foundation’s non-profit status to acquire fields for the for-profit league at local schools and parks.

Indeed, Ryan Leinart and Ryan Bertoni, a Leinart Flag Football League employee, have repeatedly over the past three years told Orange County city, parks and school district officials that the for-profit league was a non-profit organization, according to emails, memos, contracts and other agreements and federal and state documents obtained by the Register.

Ryan Leinart receives an annual salary of $90,000 to run the non-profit Leinart Foundation, according to documents filed with the IRS. The foundation had revenues of $334,256 for the fiscal year 2013, according to a May 15 draft of financial filing with the California Attorney General obtained by the Register.

“The brother’s salary is a red flag,” said Lindsay J.K. Nichols, vice president for America’s Charities. “The family members involved with the non-profit is a red flag. Using the non-profit to get reduced fees for the (for profit) is a huge red flag. That’s a lot of red flags.”

Nichols and other longtime non-profit and charitable organization analysts also said the amount of Ryan Leinart’s salary is a concern. The foundation’s single largest expenditure by far is Ryan Leinart’s annual salary. The foundation’s next largest annual expense is the $54,075 the organization spent on a football camp for underprivileged youth.

“That’s a major issue,” Nichols said. “That’s a pretty big salary for a small foundation.”

Matt Leinart, now a college football analyst for Fox Sports, declined to comment through a Fox spokesman. The network also declined to comment.

Ryan Leinart and Bertoni did not respond to interview requests from the Register.

Matthew Jennings, a spokesman for the Newport-Mesa USD, said the school district “has not reached out to the Matt Leinart League for additional fees.”

Following reporting by the Register, MLFFL reached agreements to pay the City of Costa Mesa $24,862 in back rental fees by May 2017 and to repay Irvine $63,640. Sage Hill School has stopped providing the Leinart league with field access because of concerns about the flag football league’s for-profit status.

While Ryan Leinart has acknowledged the flag football Matt Leinart Flag League was not connected to the non-profit Matt Leinart Foundation, he used the foundation’s status to get the flag football classified as a non-profit by the Newport-Mesa USD, according to emails, memos, contracts and billing invoices

The for-profit Matt Leinart Flag Football League was given non-profit status on May 2, 2014 after Ryan Leinart, using his Matt Leinart Foundation email address, sent Newport-Mesa officials IRS documents verifying the Leinart Foundation’s non-profit status.

This followed the same pattern Leinart used with other cities and parks and school districts: telling government and district officials that the flag football league was part of the foundation, providing IRS and state documents verifying the foundation’s non-profit status, and then answering “yes” more than 100 times on contracts and other agreements and other government documents when asked if the league was a non-profit.

“The foundation is not running the leagues,” Ryan Leinart acknowledged in an email to the Register earlier this year. “We have collaborated with the Matt Leinart Flag Football League to use our non-profit status.”

This practice not only gave the flag football league access to sports fields it otherwise would not have been eligible to use but it saved the corporation hundreds of dollars in field rental fees every time the league played games. For example, the Newport-Mesa USD charges non-profit groups $9 per hour to rent a district athletic field with a three-hour minimum ($27). The district’s for-profit rate is $130.50 with a three-hour minimum of $391.50.

The Los Angeles-based Matt Leinart Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit group. Leinart was selected by Arizona as the 10th pick overall in the 2006 NFL draft, signing a six-year contract with the Cardinals worth $51 million.

Leinart set up the foundation in 2006, according to documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The foundation had revenues of $334,256 for the fiscal year 2013, according to a May 15 draft of financial filing with the California Attorney General obtained by the Register.

Matt Leinart contributed $25,000 to the foundation during the 2013 fiscal year, the most recent year with available records, and $75,000 in 2012.

Other major contributors to the foundation include billionaire Tor Peterson of the Swiss commodities trading group Glencore ($100,000 in 2013, $150,000 in 2012), the John and Hilda Arnold Foundation ($40,000 in 2013), the Argyros Family Foundation ($25,000 in 2013) and the NFL Foundation ($5,000).

ML Flag Football registered with the California Secretary of State as a limited liability company Nov. 8, 2011, and at a time when interest in youth flag football was exploding amid growing concerns about concussions and other health issues related to the full-contact game.

Matt Leinart Flag Football runs leagues in Irvine, Newport Beach/Costa Mesa and South County. The league costs $170 per player and Matt Leinart Flag Football also runs summer camps and a weekly academy for quarterbacks and wide receivers.

But Ryan Leinart said in an email to the Register that the for-profit league quickly ran into significant obstacles.

“What we found is that most cities require a 501(c)(3) in order to rent their fields,” Ryan Leinart said. “We talked with our legal counsel and were advised that it was OK to proceed with the foundation lending its non-profit status to the Matt Leinart Flag Football League. Because the foundation’s mission is to provide opportunities for youth to get involved in sports, we felt that by using our non-profit status in this manner, we were fulfilling our mission.”

Contact the writer: sreid@ocregister.com