NFL Agent scandal 85 players involved

Know your enemy.

Does anyone have any further information on this NFLPA scandal.

What ever came of the Sean Jones-David Dunn NFL agent investment mess? It was publicized in 2003 then nothing. At least a few of our retired players group think it was covered up. My Google Search ends with articles in 2003 but they also end in the middle of the NFLPA suspending some ones NFL agent privileges. Tom Condon was quoted on the subject of who would get to represent the 85 NFL players who would be forced to change agents. Does any one know what happened? One of our guys emails that, “I never saw any media news on this and understand Upshaw directed it be kept from press and handled internally by NFLPA.” Was Upshaw able to cover up the rest of this scandal? The longer I look the uglier it gets.

I found the information below in the March 3, 2003 Sports Business Journal in an article by Liz Mullen. I have found nothing later on this agents scandal, than this 2003 article. I was told Upshaw was able to squash the publicity on it after that.

“Agent Jones was decertified because of information provided to the union by the lawyer for Dallas Cowboy Ebenezer Ekuban. Ekuban stated in a sworn declaration that Jones fraudulently induced him into participating in a $1 million bank loan, which has gone into default.Additionally, the union acted against Jones because a Texas court recently upheld a National Association of Securities Dealers award of more than $500,000 against Jones. In that case, Jones' former teammate, Cris Dishman, alleged that Jones engaged in unauthorized trading and churning.”

“You have a serious problem here," said George Brenkert, professor of business ethics at Georgetown University. "When the leaders or stars of any industry, be it Enron or the heads of the U.S. executive branch, are doing the types of things you are describing, there is something rotten in the state of the athlete agency business.

"When those people at the very top are found to have engaged in ethically questionable behavior, it's a sign there may be something wrong, not just with those individuals but with the system or institution in which they are operating.

"Dunn and Branion were disciplined for conduct that was revealed in the testimony of a trial late last fall in which Dunn's former employer, Steinberg, Moorad & Dunn, sued him for breach of contract, among other things.During that trial, players testified that they were solicited by Dunn and Branion to leave agent Leigh Steinberg and testified that Athletes First officials encouraged them to sign sworn declarations that were apparently not true.

In Weinberg's case, the union decertified him for putting his own financial interests above his players', according to Berthelsen.