Players Association Investigating Canseco’s Agent

Dennis Gilbert, a Beverly Hills baseball agent whose clients include Jose Canseco and Bret Saberhagen, is under investigation by the Major League Baseball Players Assn., according to a source close to the union.

Union officials, who oversee the certification and compliance of agents, would not comment on the investigation. However, the source said Gilbert has been the target of allegations and controversy since before the certification program began for agents in the summer of 1988.

The union’s agent sub-committee has requested that the union complete the investigation, which has lingered for more than a year. The sub-committee is made up of players and union officials. A union official had been scheduled to be in Los Angeles this week to complete the discovery process. But the current status of that visit is unclear.

Gene Orza, associate general counsel for the union who also oversees the agent regulation program, would not comment on Gilbert’s status, except to say that Gilbert is a certified player agent.

The main allegations center on Gilbert’s alleged violation of agent regulations. Should the union find him in non-compliance, he could be decertified as a baseball agent and not allowed to negotiate contracts for players. This would be a crucial blow to Gilbert, whose negotiating skill with the Oakland Athletics recently made Canseco the highest paid player in baseball when Canseco signed a five-year, $23.5-million contract.

Gilbert represents at least 25 major league players including Danny Tartabull of Kansas City, Bobby Bonilla of Pittsburgh and former Dodger Tim Leary, now with the New York Yankees.

The allegation the union is most concerned with deals with Gilbert’s alleged method of soliciting clients and retaining them with inducements. Other sports agents have complained that Gilbert has allegedly given or loaned money or gifts to players in order to sign them.

The union prohibits inducements to prevent players from becoming financially dependent on agents, which would then make it difficult to change agents. For that reason, all agent-player contracts can only be for one year and can be renewed annually.

Gilbert’s services extend beyond negotiating player contracts, which he does through his agency, the Beverly Hills Sports Council. He also handles player investments, endorsements, insurance needs and taxes through his other companies, Gilbert, Stewart and Associates, Dennis J. Gilbert, Inc., and by contracting with outside companies. He is a registered insurance agent, talent agent, and securities dealer for PML Securities, based in Newark, Del.

Gilbert and his wife, Cynthia, also have a California tax lien against them for $32,700 for back taxes owed from the years 1982, 1983 and 1987, according to the California Franchise Tax Board. The lien was filed in Los Angeles County, Aug. 14, 1989.

But Gilbert has also been the subject of controversy at the college level. Last year, UCLA Athletic Director Pete Dalis conducted an internal investigation of Gilbert’s relationship to the UCLA baseball team. Dalis said his investigation, prompted by an anonymous letter written to the NCAA and copied to Dalis, proved nothing.

The letter accused Gilbert of receiving favorable treatment from UCLA baseball officials and alleged that Gilbert paid an assistant coach on the team for referring players to his agency.

Gilbert, who attended UCLA, represents several former UCLA baseball players. Among those in the major leagues are Todd Zeile of the St. Louis Cardinals and Alex Sanchez of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Gilbert, who was in Chicago Tuesday for the All-Star game, did not return phone calls to The Times. However, Gilbert said last week in a letter to The Times that he would not meet to discuss allegations from unnamed sources.

In the letter sent to The Times on Friday, Gilbert said: “This is not the first time anonymous sources (maybe the same sources) have made accusations about me. . . . Accordingly, I am not interested in responding to comments from such sources. . . . However, I would be happy to respond to any specific comments about me from named sources.”

Gilbert is also a registered NFL player agent but has no clients. He started representing baseball players in the early 1980s.

Since the union began regulating and certifying agents in 1988, only Jerry Kapstein has been decertified. Kapstein, who helped former San Diego Padre owner Joan Kroc negotiate the team’s sale, lost his agent status because of a conflict of interest.