FBI Looks at Firm That Courted Bush

The FBI has opened an investigation into a fledgling sports marketing firm that tried to recruit New Orleans Saints rookie Reggie Bush as a client.

A federal law enforcement source said Wednesday that the inquiry was “in its infancy” and that it was “way too early to say where this [case] is headed.”

The attorney for Bush’s family said that he had a “lengthy” phone call with an FBI agent last week, but he would not identify who he spoke with or which FBI field office was involved.

“They’re definitely investigating federal crimes, but they didn’t identify which crimes or which federal statutes are involved,” attorney David Cornwell said, adding that he planned to help the FBI arrange interviews with Bush and his parents, LaMar and Denise Griffin.

Jan Caldwell, an FBI spokeswoman in San Diego, said she could not comment “on a pending investigation.”

Cornwell has claimed representatives of San Diego-based New Era Sports & Entertainment tried to extort money from Bush’s family.

Brian Watkins, an attorney representing the sports agency’s founders, Michael Michaels and Lloyd Lake, has said his clients plan to sue the Heisman Trophy winner’s family for $3.2 million -- $300,000 in business-related expenses, plus punitive damages.

While Bush was starring at running back for USC last season, the Griffins lived in a suburban San Diego home owned by Michaels. Watkins said the couple owed $54,000 in back rent that has not been paid. New Era never got off the ground as a sports agency once Bush chose other representation.

On Wednesday, Watkins called the suggestion of an FBI investigation “ludicrous” and “a media ploy.”

Watkins said neither he nor his clients had been contacted by the FBI and he suggested that Cornwell was using his own personal contacts to stir up an inquiry.

Watkins previously said that when the sides met for settlement talks earlier this year -- at the Santa Monica office of Bush’s marketing agent Mike Ornstein -- two men asked permission to search him for a recording device. On Wednesday, Watkins said the men had identified themselves as working for a security consulting firm called Long & Danilevicius Associates.

The firm’s website lists president Linas Danilevicius as a former FBI agent. A phone message left at the security firm’s Laguna Hills-based office was returned by Cornwell, who said Watkins’ characterization of the FBI’s involvement was “all part of the fallacy and fantasy that Watkins is living.”

Cornwell added: “When he does the perp walk, he’ll know he was wrong.”

The Pacific 10 Conference and NCAA are investigating the case. If it is found that Bush or his family received what the NCAA calls “extra benefits” USC could be sanctioned and, if Bush is found retroactively to have been ineligible, his Heisman Trophy could be taken away.

Times staff writer David Wharton also contributed to this report.