Under NLRB Law, the Owner Pays When the LLC Won’t

The NLRB just pierced the corporate veil and put a newspaper owner personally on the hook for $3.6 million.

Last week the Board granted a default judgment against Ampersand Publishing, the company behind the Santa Barbara News-Press, and its sole owner Wendy McCaw. The combined liability: $3,602,579 in backpay, expenses, and bargaining costs owed to the Teamsters and unit employees, plus interest.

Here’s the part owners should read twice.

McCaw didn’t just own the company. Per the compliance specification, between 2017 and 2023 she moved money out of Ampersand and into a web of entities she controlled — aviation LLCs, holding companies, a farm trust. The Board details $622,000 to one aviation company, $214,000 to a property company, eleven $5,000 transfers straight to herself, and more. Some were labeled “payroll.”

Then the paper filed Chapter 7, claimed insolvency, and shut down.

The Board wasn’t impressed. It found McCaw commingled funds, ignored corporate formalities, and drained corporate assets for personal use — so the LLC that was supposed to shield her didn’t. Bankruptcy didn’t stop the case either. Per the decision, ceasing operations and filing Chapter 7 doesn’t excuse a respondent from answering a compliance specification.

To me, this is the cautionary tale every closely-held employer should keep on the wall. The LLC only protects you if you treat it like a real company — separate accounts, arm’s-length dealing, no using the business as a personal checkbook.