Charlotte Checkers owner pocketed millions from 1-man charity, U.S. attorney says
The former owner of the Charlotte Checkers hockey team founded a one-man nonprofit and pocketed at least $4.5 million of what should have been charitable funds, according to U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson.
Michael Kahn, 65, pleaded not guilty in Charlotte’s federal court Thursday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Caryn Finley told U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar Aboulhosn that Kahn has “access to lots of means and regularly travels in a private plane.” She said he had used that plane this weekend, when authorities were looking for him, and was “not forthcoming about where he was” when he turned himself in.
Kahn was the majority owner of the Checkers from 2006 until 2024.
Zawyer Sports & Entertainment became the majority owner in July 2024, but Kahn still owns the second-largest share of the team, according to a Checkers news release. According to the address listed on court documents, he lives in a nearly 9,000-square-foot home near Charlotte’s Ballantyne and Piper Glen neighborhoods.
“He could definitely afford taxes,” Ferguson said outside court Thursday.
In 2010, Kahn founded the Michael A. Kahn Family Foundation, a tax-exempt nonprofit, and named himself director, president, treasurer, secretary, and chairman of the board of directors, according to a news release from Ferguson’s office. No other people worked at the nonprofit, federal prosecutors say. The foundation was founded for charitable, religious, and educational purposes.
Between 2020 and 2023, he’s accused of transferring more than $4 million from the foundation to himself. He failed to report those funds as income on his 2020 and 2021 tax returns, court documents say. In 2022 and 2023, he failed to file tax returns altogether.
Kahn was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond and required to wear an electronic monitoring device.
This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 12:32 PM with the headline "Charlotte Checkers owner pocketed millions from 1-man charity, U.S. attorney says."
