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Officials allege suspect had 91 players' records
By Dave Wischnowsky, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporter
Carlos Sadovi and freelance reporter Barbara Bell contributed to
this report
Searching the West Side apartment of an identity-fraud suspect
this week, authorities allegedly discovered financial records belonging
to 91 Major League Baseball players, including White Sox slugger
Jim Thome, former Cubs outfielder Moises Alou and star Mets pitcher
Pedro Martinez.
David Dright, 38, of the 5200 block of West Chicago Avenue, Chicago,
allegedly plucked discarded--and unshredded--loan applications,
tax returns and other private documents earlier this year from a
trash bin near the Northbrook offices of SFX Baseball, which negotiates
contracts for professional baseball players.
"He was Dumpster-diving and happened to go into one by an
office building in Northbrook," said Lincolnshire Police Detective
John-Erik Anderson, whose department launched the investigation
after an identity-fraud complaint from a resident who works with
the Chicago Bulls.
"But I don't think he realized the extent of what he pulled
out of there," Anderson said. "He recognized the names
of some of the [major-leaguers], but I don't think he really knew.
It was totally random."
Prosecutors said there is no evidence that Dright managed to profit
from the information, which also included that of at least 19 Lake
County residents.
"We don't necessarily show there's been any successful usage
of credit cards," said Lake County Assistant State's Atty.
Patricia Fix.
However, the alleged caper rattled enough cages Wednesday that
a receptionist at MLB's New York headquarters said the phone had
been ringing off the hook all day.
"Major League Baseball is clearly aware of this," said
Anderson, whose department has fielded calls from Rob Manfred, MLB's
executive vice president for labor relations, and Tom Ostertag,
the league's general counsel.
On its Web site, SFX Baseball claims to represent more major-leaguers
than any other sports agency. Last year it served about 125 clients,
or about 17percent of all players in the majors, baseballamerica.com
stated.
It's unclear why the documents were thrown away without having
been shredded, as recommended by privacy experts, myriad law-enforcement
agencies and the Federal Trade Commission.
Officials at SFX Baseball declined to comment.
On Wednesday, Dright was charged in Lake County with 19counts of
identity theft, authorities said. He also was charged with eight
counts of aggravated identity theft after being accused of combing
public Web sites for the obituaries of children to help him obtain
fraudulent Social Security numbers, said Assistant State's Atty.
Joe Fusz.
Prosecutors said Dright may face other charges in Cook County stemming
from the possession of financial records belonging to nearly 100
former and current big-league players, including such stars as Juan
Pierre, Andres Galarraga, Larry Walker, Terry Pendleton and Miguel
Tejada.
Because the documents were picked out of trash in Northbrook, an
investigation would have to be handled by Cook County authorities,
Fix said. In addition, none of the players involved lives in Lake
County, she said.
Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney's
office, said officials have been in communication with Lake County
but have not yet been formally called in on the case.
On Tuesday, Lincolnshire and Chicago police, along with the Secret
Service and U.S. Postal Service inspectors, executed a search warrant
at Dright's apartment, where they found two credit cards in his
name that he had obtained without permission from Al Vermeil, a
strength and conditioning consultant for the Bulls, authorities
said.
Police were first alerted to a possible case of identity theft
in mid-November when Vermeil filed a complaint after a credit agency
informed him someone was using his financial identity to obtain
credit cards and apply for mortgages.
After an investigation involving electronic sleuthing and "some
old-fashioned police work," Anderson said, Lincolnshire police
identified Dright as a suspect.
Vermeil's credit was accessed without his permission on four occasions,
prosecutor Fusz said.
"No [credit card] charges were ever approved, and I didn't
lose any money, thankfully," said Vermeil, a member of the
Bulls staff since 1985. "The credit card agency stopped everything
in its tracks, and the Lincolnshire police did a tremendous job
in cracking a big case."
Vermeil said he was surprised when detectives informed him that
his financial information had been found alongside that of a slew
of millionaire major-leaguers.
"Compared to those 91 guys, I'm a nobody," he said. "There
were a lot bigger fish out there."
Dright is being held in Lake County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.
He is due back in court next Wednesday.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
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