Union Confirms Gilbert Under Investigation : Agent: Gene Orza of baseball union says while inquiry into Dennis Gilbert is incomplete, the charges appear to be false.

Gene Orza, associate general counsel of the Major League Players Assn., has confirmed that he was in Los Angeles last week investigating Dennis Gilbert, a Beverly Hills player agent who is under scrutiny for alleged non-compliance of agent regulations.

Orza, reached Saturday in Los Angeles, said there were three aspects to his inquiry of Gilbert, but would not be specific. Orza previously would not confirm that there was an investigation, which was commissioned in January. The players union, however, has kept an open file on Gilbert for more than a year.

“I’m not going to deny it (the investigation), particularly in light of what has been reported out here thus far,” Orza said, referring to a July report in The Times that Gilbert was under investigation by the union.

“But I also will say while the inquiry is not yet complete, a substantial part of it has been and, at least to this point, I haven’t uncovered anything to suggest that the charges leveled at him have an appropriate foundation. In fact, to the contrary, all I have uncovered to this point suggests that, absent new developments, the accusations were simply false. Beyond that, I have no further comment.”

Gilbert, whose clients include Jose Canseco and Bret Saberhagen, is being looked at for his alleged method of soliciting clients or others with inducements to secure players, a violation of union regulations. The union prohibits inducements to prevent players from becoming financially dependent on agents, which would then make it difficult for them to change agents.

If Gilbert is found in non-compliance he could be reprimanded by the union or ultimately lose his agent certification, which allows him to negotiate player contracts. Gilbert, through his agency, the Beverly Hills Sports Council, represents at least 25 major league players including Danny Tartabull of Kansas City, Bobby Bonilla of Pittsburgh and Tim Leary of the New York Yankees.

Gilbert could not be reached Monday but his attorney, Steve Schneider, issued this statement: “These allegations and accusations that make up the current Players Assn. investigation are accusations of longstanding. They come from anonymous telephone calls and letters and apparently from people who want to either embarrass or damage the business or reputation of Dennis. These people wish to remain invisible and refuse to come out publicly and identify themselves.

“We believe that these accusations were and are fictitious and false and believe the current investigation will demonstrate that. Beyond that we believe it is inappropriate to comment any further until the investigation is formally completed. It is unfortunate that so much effort and energy has to be spent on allegations that are easily and casually made but difficult to disprove.”

Two aspects of the investigation deal with alleged inducements said to involve UCLA and a Milwaukee Brewer official. Representatives from the school and team were interviewed by Orza last week.

UCLA Athletic Director Pete Dalis last year 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 had 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.

The third aspect of the investigation apparently involves Gilbert’s business dealings with the union.

In July, Gilbert repeatedly denied he was under investigation, claiming that the charges against him were old and that he had a letter from the union clearing him. The letter, written by Orza to Gilbert in March, 1989, said that Gilbert was not under investigation despite a story in Sports, Inc. to the contrary.

However, as new charges surfaced, the union continued to keep a file on Gilbert. The union’s agent sub-committee, made up of players and union officials, requested that the union investigate whether Gilbert was in violation of regulations. An official investigation was commissioned in January.

Gilbert’s denial of the current investigation was seemingly supported by Mark Belanger, a special assistant at the players’ union, who told the National in July: “Absolutely nothing has changed in Dennis’s situation in a year and a half, and it’s unbelievable that a paper would make it sound like something new has happened when it hasn’t.”

Even though there was an investigation at the time, Orza said there was no intentional subterfuge on the union’s part in making that statement.

“Some confusion may have been generated by the headline in the National (that said the union was denying the investigation). But I guess that in a sense, what Mark said is a tribute to just how successful we are at keeping things confidential, waning though that success may be.”