More on Victor Baez, Dominican baseball scout arrested for fraud

1/5/11: "The "hustler" Dominican Victor Baez was arrested yesterday by the national police and indicted on charges of fraud and falsifying documents to get professional contracts for players in the Caribbean country. Baez ran for years a recognized player development program, which he later presented to Major League organizations to be recruited to play in the U.S..

• In 2010, the San Diego Padres hired for $ 500,000 to the prospect Edwin Moreno and the Baltimore Orioles gave him a bonus of 300,000 Hector Veloz. Both belonged to Baez program.

Late last year, Baez accused the then manager of the largest office, Sandy Alderson of the company into bankruptcy after its top prospects will not pass drug tests and were not hired for professionalism.

• Police said no specific cases of those who ordered the arrest of Baez.

"We want to clarify something and Victor Baez is not a major league scout but an independent coach who develops players. We support the efforts of the police and the U.S. consulate, and we hope that all responsible to make themselves known, "said Ezequiel Sepulveda, a scout for the Dodgers in Los Angeles and president of the Scout Association of the Dominican Republic.

Sepulveda said his desire not to repeat what happened a few years ago when a group of prospects were punished for marrying to obtain visas Dominican American and players were disciplined "but not those involved in the fraud ring."

• Forgery and use of performance enhancing drugs were the main problems that have affected the credibility of baseball in the Dominican Republic. The most notorious case of forgery was the one that hit the Washington Nationals in 2009, to give a bonus of $ 1.4 million for a shortstop who thought Esmailyn Gonzalez was called and he was 16 years old. But an investigation was called Carlos Alvarez Lugo."...

1/5/11, "Buscon imprison in fighting fraud initiative Domincan Republic," Hoy, Dionisio Soldevila, google translation from Spanish, original Spanish

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