New Trail Blazers Owner Has History of 'Predatory' Lending

Oregon is poised to pour hundreds of millions into the Portland Trail Blazers' arena to keep the team from leaving—while the incoming owner faces fresh scrutiny over how he made his fortune. ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting report that billionaire Tom Dundon, whose purchase of the Blazers is expected to close March 31, helped drive lending tactics at subprime auto lender Santander Consumer USA that later led Oregon and other states to a $550 million settlement over what regulators labeled "predatory and harmful" practices.

Newly obtained internal emails show Dundon, then CEO, pushed in 2013 to waive proof-of-income requirements for car buyers and to raise pricing to offset the extra risk, despite warnings from the company's own compliance chief. In their 2020 court complaint, Oregon officials said many Santander customers took out loans under the "false pretense" that they would end up owning the car, but the terms of the loans meant the car would "almost certainly" be repossessed.

• "Proof of income requirements exist for a reason—they protect borrowers from being sold loans they cannot afford, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a statement. "When those guardrails get waived, dealerships win in the short term, and consumers lose."

• The investigation records are resurfacing just as lawmakers have signed off on $365 million in state funding—part of an $870 million public package—to renovate the Blazers' publicly owned arena, the Moda Center. Dundon's ownership group wants the public to cover 100% of the cost, though in 2023, he promised an $800 million investment linked to arena renovations for another team he owns, the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes.
• Critics say Dundon's regulatory history underscores the need for tighter taxpayer protections; state and city leaders say their focus is keeping the franchise in Portland. In lobbying material, team representatives wrote that losing the team "would have a devastating impact on the City's national and international reputation and would feed the 'doom loop' narrative we have all been working to refute."
• John Van Alst, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, tells ProPublica that Portland's leaders have more options than Santander's customers. "They have more resources to make good choices, hopefully, than a lot of folks do who get themselves tangled up in really bad subprime auto financing," he says.