The owners of the Minnesota Vikings were ordered to pay nearly $85 million in damages to former business partners they defrauded with "evil motive", and will face a criminal investigation into their actions, which a judge declared violated racketeering laws. There's a chance this ruling could hold up plans for a new Vikings stadium.

Zygi Wilf, the majority owner of the team, and his brother Mark and cousin Leonard were found liable for fraud, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty, for their roles in scamming former partners out of the profits of a New Jersey apartment complex. The Wilfs withheld revenues and charged unauthorized fees and interest payments for decades. "Organized crime-type activities," the judge called them, finding they violated the state's RICO act.

"Zygi and his father decided...that the Reichmanns had gotten too good a deal," Superior Court Judge Deanne Wilson declared. "And so they were just simply not going to honor it."

Yesterday, the judge ruled on damages. The Wilfs must pay a whopping $84.5 million, including $36.8 million in punitive damages. Under New Jersey law, the case will now be sent to the county prosecutor and state attorney general for a criminal investigation.

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DeadSpin  wrote:

"I do not believe I have seen one single financial statement that is true and accurate."

Even if the Wilfs are good for it, it's bad news for a stadium deal that went sour almost immediately. Minnesota promised taxpayers wouldn't feel the brunt of the state's contributions because they would come from the proceeds of electronic gambling machines, which were projected to haul in $35 million over the first year. They earned the state $0, and some politicians are demanding an investigation .

A state senator and ardent critic of the public financing plan for the new Vikings stadium wants Minnesota lawmakers to investigate failed revenue projections for the project.

The state's $348 million piece of the $975 million stadium project in downtown Minneapolis was to be driven by increased tax revenue from the new, electronic forms of pull-tabs and bingo. Current projections show the electronic games will bring in $1.7 million by the end of 2013 -- just 5 percent of the original estimates.

Sen. Sean Nienow, R-Cambridge, wrote a letter to Sen. Dick Cohen, DFL-St. Paul, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, asking for hearings on the matter.

"I was skeptical from the beginning on Governor Dayton's estimates of money that would be generated from electronic pull-tabs. Now we're seeing his estimates are completely off, not even remotely close," Nienow wrote.

The stadium financing package was passed last year with bipartisan support. Republicans were in control of both the House and the Senate at the time, and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton signed it into law.