Bruce McNall Bruce Patrick McNall Ph . D . ( born April 17 , 1950 in Arcadia , California ) is a former American historian , Thoroughbred racehorse owner , and a sports executive who once owned the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League ( NHL ) and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League ( CFL ) . McNall claimed to have made his initial fortune as a coin collector , though Metropolitan Museum of Art director Thomas Hoving claimed he smuggled art antiquities . McNall bought a 25 percent stake in the Kings from Jerry Buss in 1986 , and bought an additional 24 percent in 1987 to become the team ' s largest shareholder . He was named team president that September , and purchased Buss ' remaining shares in March 1988 . He then shocked the sports world on August 9 , 1988 when he acquired the NHL ' s biggest star , Wayne Gretzky , along with Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski , from the Edmonton Oilers for Jimmy Carson , Martin Gelinas , three first - round draft choices and $ 15 million . McNall raised Gretzky ' s annual salary from less than $ 1 million to $ 3 million , which , in turn , triggered a dramatic rise in NHL salaries throughout the 1990s . Decline . McNall ' s profile rose almost as fast as that of the Kings , culminating in his election as chairman of the NHL Board of Governors — the league ' s second - highest post — in 1992 . Then , just as fast as his star rose , it fell . In December 1993 , he defaulted on a $ 90 million loan , and Bank of America ordered him to put the Kings up for sale or they would force the team into bankruptcy . Under this pressure , McNall was forced to sell controlling interest in the Kings in May 1994 and resign as chairman of the board of governors , though he still remained as president and governor of the Kings for a time . Shortly afterward , he granted a bizarre interview to " Vanity Fair " in which he admitted to smuggling many of his prized coins out of foreign countries . Other rumors surfaced about his financial situation . Finally , on December 14 , he pled guilty to five counts of conspiracy and fraud , and admitted to bilking six banks out of $ 236 million over a ten - year period . He was sentenced to 70 months in prison . Immediately after McNall ' s conviction , it emerged that he ' d grossly mismanaged the Kings financially . The team was ultimately forced into bankruptcy . Nonetheless , McNall remained on good terms with many of his former players , with Gretzky , Rob Blake , Luc Robitaille and others visiting him in prison . Gretzky even refused to allow the Kings to retire his number 99 until McNall could attend the ceremony . McNall also attended Robitaille ' s uniform retirement ceremony in 2007 . McNall was released in 2001 after his sentence was reduced by 13 months for good behavior . He was on probation until 2006 . In 2003 , McNall published an autobiography titled " Fun While It Lasted : My Rise and Fall in the Land of Fame and Fortune " . On June 1 , 2009 , in a list of published tax cheats by the State of California , Bruce Patrick McNall of Tarzana ( a City of Los Angeles neighborhood ) was listed as owing $ 7 , 461 , 764 , the second largest amount owed by an individual in California .