Advisor accuses Blackhawks of fraud and sexual harassment

CHICAGO (AP) — A consultant hired by the Chicago Blackhawks to improve relations with Native American tribes has filed a lawsuit accusing the team, its charitable foundation and its CEO of fraud, breach of contract and sexual harassment.

Nina Sanders filed the civil lawsuit late Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court. She claims in the lawsuit that the Blackhawks faced intense public pressure to change their name and logo in 2020. The team’s CEO, Danny Wirtz, hired her as a tribal liaison this year.

Wirtz promised that he would create jobs for American Indians, buy land to give to the Sac and Fox Nation and change the team’s logo if she decided to take the job, the lawsuit says. She took the job based on those promises, but Wirtz didn’t follow through on any of them, the lawsuit says.

Sanders further claims she told her direct supervisor that an employee sexually harassed her in 2021 and tried to force her into his hotel room. The harassment continued until 2022, but nothing was ever done about it, the lawsuit says. Sanders also claims that she reported two other incidents in which male employees groped women, but no action was taken.

According to the lawsuit, Wirtz terminated Sanders’ contract last summer.

A Blackhawks spokesman did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.

The team said in a statement to WBBM-TV that the organization had identified “operational issues” with Sanders’ work and outside partners had told the team they did not want to work with her. The team still extended her a new contract in 2023, but Sanders chose not to renew it. The team said it investigated Sanders’ sexual harassment allegations and did not find enough evidence to substantiate them.