Creditors Sue Minnesota’s Kramer, Claiming He Diverted Business Assets

Minnesota Viking quarterback Tommy Kramer has been sued by creditors and two former business partners alleging that he failed to repay debts and illegally diverted business assets from a newspaper he owned.

A lawyer for two of Kramer’s business partners said in court last week that Kramer used funds from the Viking Report to build a swimming pool at his home and to lease an automobile.

Metropolitan Bank of Bloomington also claimed that Kramer and business associate Dennis R. Weber failed to repay the bank $90,000 on three loans, including a $65,000 loan used to buy the newspaper three years ago. The Viking Report folded in May.

Kramer and his new partner proposed turning over some of the paper’s assets--including desks, typewriters and a typsetting machine--to erase the debt.

But Kramer’s old partners, including former Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann and Kramer’s former agent William R. Morris, were unhappy with the proposed settlement.

They said the proposal leaves Kramer’s new paper with a list of about 12,000 old subscribers, the most important asset.

“This quarterback sneak should be stopped at the line of scrimmage,” said the former partners’ attorney, Marshall Tanick.

Kramer’s attorney, Michael Meyer, said the quarterback has “lost a lot of money” on the business.

Hennepin County District Court Judge Michael Davis took the case under advisement.