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 FBI Five Agents begin 2nd round of interviews with former players
Posted: Wednesday June 09, 1999 06:40 PM
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- Federal agents have begun a second round of interviews with some former University of Michigan basketball players about whether they accepted cash payments from banned booster Ed Martin, according to a published report. It was not immediately clear which former Wolverines players were being interviewed by FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents, The Ann Arbor News reported Wednesday. But sources who spoke to the newspaper on condition they remain anonymous said the players are being asked to verify statements and firm up details from initial interviews with investigators. Sources said Tuesday that the case within weeks could go to a grand jury, which will hear evidence and testimony before deciding whether charges should be brought. Published reports have suggested that the federal probe has been delving into whether Martin -- a Ford Motor Co. retiree banned from associating with the team in 1997 -- ran an illegal numbers operation at Detroit-area Ford plants. As part of that probe, the FBI reportedly has been examining whether Martin gave large amounts of cash and loans to several former Wolverines players, dating to the Fab Five era in the early 1990s. Sources familiar with the investigation have said federal wiretaps had captured conversations between Martin and at least three former Wolverines players, and that several players have been served with subpoenas to access bank records. Former Wolverines Chris Webber, Robert Traylor and Louis Bullock are among those who have been interviewed or subpoenaed, sources told the News. On Tuesday, Webber's agent and lawyer, L. Falasha Irwin, confirmed that his client -- a former Fab Five star now with the NBA's Sacramento Kings -- had been subpoenaed in the case. "As far as him being spoken to, I have no knowledge of him being interviewed at all," Irwin told the newspaper. "We know something was served on him, but to my knowledge no one has requested an interview with him. I have no knowledge of it. I'm not going to comment on that." Traylor and Bullock could not immediately be reached for comment, the newspaper said. Traylor's Virginia-based agent, Andre Colona, did not return a phone call Tuesday, the newspaper said. Rick Convertino, assistant U.S. attorney in the Organized Crime Strike Force's Detroit office that probes suspected gambling crimes, has been assigned the Martin case. On Tuesday, he declined to comment about the matter. The FBI reportedly raided Martin's home and at least 10 other area residences April 28 as part of its investigation into Martin's suspected numbers-running operation. School officials have said the FBI told them that no evidence had surfaced of gambling on Wolverines games. Martin was a target in a 1997 investigation of the university's basketball program that prompted his being banned, Athletic Director Tom Goss' firing of coach Steve Fisher and minor NCAA sanctions. The university also subsequently revamped its complimentary ticket policy and tightened access to the tunnel entrance of Crisler Arena. Last month, Goss asked the school's Provost Nancy Cantor to form a committee to determine whether any inappropriate activity by Martin has occurred since those policies were enacted two years ago. Ms. Cantor said Tuesday that she expects a preliminary report from the committee by the end of June. Members have begun interviewing coaches, athletes, trainers, managers and others associated with the basketball program, she said. "In the general sense, we have to make sure we are safeguarding the integrity of the program, and do we indeed have policies in place that are keeping people from intruding?" she said. "We have to look at those policies and see if they have made a difference. "I have every reason to believe they really did safeguard the program."
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