SAN ANTONIO – Peter Martin Holt, former chairman and CEO of Spurs Sports & Entertainment, and a former employee of one of his companies, are locked in a bitter legal battle.
Both sides filed lawsuits against each other this week over allegations that Holt coerced the former employee to smuggle illegal drugs into the United States, according to court records obtained by KSAT Investigates.
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In his lawsuit, Holt’s former yacht captain of over a decade, Jay Jones, claimed he “quit in protest” in January after his repeated refusals to transport the drugs were ignored. He claims Holt “is an addict and alcoholic,” and said that the first “illicit request” began in 2017, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Harris County.
In his lawsuit filed a day earlier in Blanco County, Holt claimed the allegations by the former employee were made up and part of an effort to extort him by exploiting Holt’s past addictions. And, that the former employee “threatened to publicly disclose these allegations unless Plaintiff attended a mediation (which they did) and paid millions of dollars (which they won’t). We call this what it is: extortion.”
Holt is the former CEO of Holt Cat and retired as chairman and CEO of the San Antonio Spurs in 2016.
Holt’s lawsuit seeks for a judge to declare he did not wrongfully terminate Jones, and seeks court and attorney costs and other damages.
Chip Babcock, a Houston attorney, is representing Holt. He told KSAT in a text message Friday evening that “Mr. Holt denies the allegations in the second suit filed by Mr. Jones in Houston. The first suit was brought by Mr. Holt in Blanco County, where he lives, and addresses the threats by Mr. Jones to either pay millions of dollars in hush money or face public exposure and embarrassment. As a highly decorated war hero and successful businessman, Mr. Holt does not give in to this sort of coercion and looks forward to airing out these false allegations against him in court.”
The lawsuit filed by Jones lists Holt, several of his business ventures, including Holt Cat, as defendants. A Spurs official declined to comment. The team is not listed as a defendant in the suit.
“Holt used his power and connections to force Captain Jones to illegally acquire drugs in a foreign country and transfer them through Houston, Texas to wherever Holt was at the time,” said the lawsuit filed by Jones.
Jones said Holt “tricked [Jones] into transporting an entire cooler full of illegal drugs,” records show. Holt is also accused having Jones use his own passport to get drugs from multiple Costa Rican pharmacies.
Photos included in the filing show a cooler containing “copious amounts of marijuana in all forms imaginable” brought to Texas from Florida, as well as boxes of generic versions of prescription drugs Xanax and Provigil, which the lawsuit said Holt asked Jones to transport from Costa Rica on a commercial flight in 2025.
Jones “had to make an impossible decision: either quit a high-paying dream job; or risk imprisonment, losing his [U.S. Coast Guard] license, and losing his ability to travel international,” court records state.
Jones said Holt’s requests for narcotics increased soon after, including by bringing drugs to the U.S. from Costa Rica through the Panama Canal.
“When the powerful Peter Martin Holt’s need for narcotics outstripped his ability to acquire the same legally, he turned to those with whom he most interacted and controlled, his employees to satisfy his addiction,” according to the lawsuit.
Records show Jones is seeking an unknown amount of financial damages for wrongful termination and emotional distress. He is demanding a jury trial.
“The lawsuit on file is detailed and compelling,” said Tony Buzbee, the attorney representing Jones, in a text to KSAT Friday. “I am proud to represent this brave man. We won’t allow him to be bullied or deterred. We look forward to a jury trial in this matter where we expect there will be many other shocking facts revealed.”
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.