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Don Van Natta Jr.
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Don Van Natta Jr.
Superior writer ESPN
- Host and co-producer of co-executive of the new ESPN series, “Backstory”
- Member of three teams winner of the Pulitzer Prize for national, explanatory and public service journalism
- Author of three books, including the New York Times “First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers and Cheatar of Taft to Bush”
- 24 -year career at the New York Times and Miami Herald
FBI agents contacted the players of the Major Baseball League on their knowledge of financial transactions related to a group license company of several billion dollars began and possessed, in part, by their union and the NFL Players Association, sources with the knowledge of the survey declared in ESPN.
The sources, which have spoken under the guise of anonymity, said they had direct knowledge of the law calls for at least three actors involved in union leadership in recent days. Sources have said that players are not targets of the investigation.
According to sources, law enforcement agents have inquired about the money linked to the Oneteam partners, created in 2019 by NFLPA, MLBPA and an investment capital partner, Redbird Capital, and used to conclude media agreements and monetize the name, the image of athletes.
In a statement, OneTeam said he was “aware of an ongoing investigation into the allegations concerning our partners. We want to emphasize that Oonteam has not been inquiry and has not been accused of any reprehensible act. OneTeam is fully determined to cooperate with the investigation.”
Syndicate leaders said they had not been contacted by federal agents. “If the MLBPA is contacted by the government, we intend to cooperate fully with any investigation,” the MLBPA said in a statement in ESPN on Friday. The leadership of players has kept separate legal advice outside the union, sources said.
Sources have indicated that the investigation was in the process of being carried out in the Oriental District of New York, whose office is based in Brooklyn. A senior FBI official refused to comment on Friday, and a spokesperson for the Oriental District refused to confirm the investigation.
The OneTeam partnership has become a major financial boon for the two associations and increased in evaluation by adding the unions of women’s basketball players, male and female football and other sports and collegial athletes to its portfolio. OneTeam was estimated at $ 1.9 billion in 2022, when Redbird Capital sold his participation by 40% to three other investment companies.
The MLBPA and NFLPA relations with OneTeam have already been examined. At the end of 2024, an anonymous complaint of unfair work practices was filed with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging “nepotism, corruption, mismanagement” at MLBPA.
In December, the NFLPA foreign council, Richard Smith, launched an audit to find out if Oneteam had granted capital options to the executive directors of the unions that the company represents, including the MLBPA. In his declaration, OneTeam said that it “remains firm in our commitment to follow the best business practices, as has already been determined by the independent audit achieved earlier this year. … We remain dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of integrity and transparency in everything we do.”
The complaint of the NLRB against the MLBPA allegates that the executive director of the union, Tony Clark, “himself inappropriate the actions and the other leaders” in Oneteam and made “inadequate disclosure” on the partnership in the annual unions.
The union previously denied allegations against Clark, 52. He was hired as Director of Relations with MLBPA players after 15 seasons as a player and went up to the executive director after the death of his predecessor, Michael Weiner, in 2013. According to an LM-30 board.
Union finances have improved considerably under the direction of Clark, partly due to Oneteam’s product. From 2020 to 2024, the partnership paid MLBPA nearly $ 160 million, according to annual LM-2 reports from the union. In 2024, the union received $ 44.5 million from OneTeam.
The reports do not detail the share of the Ondeam round distributed to the players. The MLBPA has more than $ 353 million in total assets, the highest figure in the exercise of its history, according to documents.
According to the most recent MLBPA file, the union paid Clark $ 3.5 million in 2024.
The NFLPA OneTeam audit was completed in March and found that the role of the union as a part of OneTeam was “in accordance with best governance practices,” said a source with first -hand knowledge.
A spokesperson for the NFLPA refused to comment on Friday.
According to its LM-2, OneTeam has paid $ 422.8 million at the NFLPA in the past five years. The total NFLPA asset is nearly $ 1.4 billion, with almost $ 240 million in cash, according to documents filed by the union.
Demaurice Smith, the former leader of the NFLPA who co -founded Oneteam with Clark, left the Union in 2023 and was replaced on the board of directors of the partnership by the new executive director of the union, Lloyd Howell Jr.