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Agent linked to FSU airline tickets Report: Houston-based Poston faces felony investigation
Posted: Monday December 20, 1999 02:22 PM
HOUSTON (AP) -- Investigators have learned that an employee of a Houston-based sports agent may have arranged the purchase of airline tickets for three Florida State football players, violating a Florida licensing law, the Houston Chronicle reported Monday. The newspaper cited documents and sources familiar with an ongoing investigation by the Florida State University Police Department and the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Agent Carl C. Poston III's company, Professional Sports Planning Inc., became the focus of that inquiry in July after university athletic officials learned that flights had been booked from Tallahassee to Houston for Peter Warrick, the Seminoles' star receiver, as well as receivers Laveranues Coles and Ron Dugans. University officials became suspicious because the July 8 flights coincided with a lavish party being thrown in Houston for Poston's clients. Only Coles took the flight. He was withheld from the Aug. 28 season opener against Louisiana Tech because using the ticket meant he had violated NCAA rules, which bar student-athletes from receiving cash or other benefits from agents. The university ruled Coles ineligible Sept. 9, seven days after FSU police and state investigators questioned Boca Raton, Fla., travel agent, Angela Steffer under oath. According to sources, Steffer testified she booked the flights and issued the tickets at the request of Jeff Knox, a Professional Sports Planning employee, and later followed his orders to cover up the company's involvement. Knox, identified in 1996 correspondence with the Texas Secretary of State's Office as "client services manager" for Professional Sports Planning, is not licensed as an agent in Florida. Poston is licensed. Recruiting athletes attending Florida schools and engaging in other agent-related activities in the state without a license is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Natalie Kelly, a spokeswoman for Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation, said a licensed agent can be charged with criminal misconduct if an unlicensed employee is conducting agent-related business in Florida on the agent's behalf. A licensed agent who violates NCAA regulations also risks administrative penalties, including suspension or revocation of his or her license. Poston did not immediately return a telephone message left by The Associated Press on Monday. FSU police spokesman Jack Handley has decline comment on the case, citing the pending investigation. Warrick and Dugans both told university officials they were unaware of the plane tickets. "Are they lying or not lying? I don't know," FSU associate athletic director Bob Minnix told the Chronicle. "But there was no indication to me they were getting ready to go anywhere."
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