INDICTMENTS ANNOUNCED AGAINST THREE FORMER WHITE SOX EMPLOYEES FOR ALLEGEDLY DEFRAUDING TEAM; WHITE SOX ISSUE STATEMENT

CHICAGO – Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announced indictments today on federal fraud charges against three former Chicago White Sox employees for defrauding the organization.

According to the Justice Department’s press release, the three “were indicted today for allegedly accepting kickbacks totaling approximately $400,000 from signing bonuses and contract buyouts paid to secure 23 prospective players between December 2004 and February 2008.” The seven-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury alleges that the White Sox were defrauded of money, as well as the honest services of the defendants, who allegedly concealed the kickbacks from the team and its more senior officials.

Charged with seven counts of mail fraud were David S. Wilder, the White Sox farm system director from late 2003-2006, when he became the team’s senior director of player personnel until May 2008, and Jorge L. Oquendo Rivera, a White Sox Latin American scout between November 2004 and June 2007. Victor Mateo, a White Sox scout in the Dominican Republic between November 2006 and May 2008, was charged with three counts of mail fraud.

Wilder and Mateo were terminated by the White Sox in May 2008 as a result of a Major League Baseball investigation which began at the request of the team. Oquendo was terminated by the White Sox in June 2007 for reasons unrelated to this investigation.

“The defendants were supposed to recruit players by paying amounts of money that matched their skills and were no greater than the amount needed to sign the players. Instead, the indictment alleges that the defendants secretly inflated those signing amounts to fund kickbacks for themselves,” said Fitzgerald, in a press release summarizing the indictments.

“These defendants allegedly defrauded their employer and enriched themselves by taking advantage of vulnerable ballplayers, who were anxious to pursue their dreams of stardom in the major leagues,” said Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The investigation began after the Chicago White Sox reported internal findings to Major League Baseball and baseball officials referred the matter to federal authorities. Both the White Sox and Major League Baseball cooperated with the investigation.

According to the U.S. States Attorney’s press release, “to provide for kickbacks, Wilder, Oquendo and Mateo allegedly misrepresented to the White Sox the amount of money necessary to sign certain players and omitted information about the payments, causing the Sox to pay artificially and fraudulently inflated signing bonuses to players and causing the Sox to purchase the contracts of and rights to players from other teams at artificially and fraudulently inflated prices.”

In response to the announcement, the White Sox issued the following statement:

“The Chicago White Sox commend the diligence and hard work shown by Federal authorities and Major League Baseball in reaching today's indictments. Since the White Sox first reported our internal findings to Major League Baseball, MLB and its clubs have taken important and positive steps to establish processes in Latin America that are designed to better protect Latin players, as well as Major League Baseball's teams, from being victimized by illegal activities related to scouting and signing players.”