MIAMI DOLPHIINS

 

The following is a document I created to submit to the United States Congress as background for the hearing that they held regarding the

NFL Disability System

 

GENERAL STATEMENT of FACTS re CONGRESSIONAL HEARING

 

I am providing both factual and relevant information regarding the June 26th, 2007 hearing concerning the actions of the trustees from the NFLPA and Management.

 

I have been waging a 21 year battle with the NFL over the dispute involving what appears to be fraud stemming from a Fiduciary Misconduct complaint investigation filed with the department of Labor in 2003.

 

I will not make any statements of fact that cannot be substantiated with proof and evidence.

 

I have enclosed several documents to provide corroboration of my statements concerning the course of conduct of the Retirement Board Counsel, The Groom Law group. taken

 

I have provided information involving the pattern and practice of the NFL Benefit Plans Trustees.

 

I am including a copy of an affidavit involving a chain of events concerning the mis-use of the arbitration process [Exhibit one]. Prior to 1993; the Retirement Board each had their own Counsel. The Players Counsel was Linquest and Venum from Minneapolis Minnesota, and the Owners Counsel was Baker and Hosteller from Washington D.C.

 

After the 1993, Collective Bargaining Agreement; the new NFLPA Counsel was hired by the Owner management to represent both entities, at the same time.

This is the outlined in exhibit #2 which is the October 20th 1994 original letter of confirmation describing fees and duties of the Groom Law Group as it applied to the representation of the Owners and the NFLPA as the Retirement Board Counsel.

 

I am also enclosing a copy of a letter I sent to Commissioner Roger Goodell. The letter speaks for itself; I am also providing the relevant documents to support my claims of Fiduciary Misconduct in the violation of ERISA Law by the Trustees and its Counsel, the Groom Law Group.

 

I don’t want to overwhelm you with a paper trail but it is here. As this unfolds what will be found is a massive cover up of fraud and misconduct at the hands of both the Retirement Board and its Counsel the Groom Law Group. I know enough about these people and what they have done to the Plan over the past 21 years that are clearly civil charges that borderline criminal charges.

 

I sent to Ms Sanchez copies of letters as far back as 1990 showing the Retirement Board NFLPA Counsel attempting to push the arbitration process in a situation in which the Plan’s Terms clearly did not call for arbitration.

 

Since 1993 the Retirement Board has, through amendments, manipulated the Plan’s Terms to include arbitration as part of a “medical” decision because until they changed the Plan’s Terms “Medical Disputes” were decided by the Medical Advisory Physician and that decision was “final and binding on the Retirement Board.”

For the record; Dave Duerson, newest Trustee in his first explanation of the Plan’s terms to the media stated that a Player is sent to the “Medical Arbitration Professional”, no such term exists in the Plan’s stated language.

 

In 2004, the Retirement Board went to the Supreme Court to exempt the Treating Physicians Rule, as in Social Security; where the Players’ Doctor made the medical determination that was final and binding on the Retirement Board.

 

This was done in order to not pay a disability benefit.

This ironically, was concluded by the Department of Labor to be a “justified expense” of “Plan Assets” in the payment of almost 2 million dollars to litigate this Case on the exemption of the treating Physician Rule.

 

Enclosed is the EBSA file note from Department of Labor investigator Nathan Siedman. It seems as though the Department of Labor investigator is validating the premise that the legal fee’s of $140,000.00 spent on removing “the discretion” from the Doctor to prevent having to pay a Player 224,000.00 was justified as “protecting Plan’s assets”. Exhibit 3

 

As I said, I do not want to overwhelm you, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. If you would like me to brief the committee on the history and evolution of the “Plans” and the use of Arbitration, in this case the misuse of arbitration, I would be willing to do so under Oath.

 

If you have any questions concerning ERISA and the disregarding of both ERISA and The Plan’s Terms involving arbitration, I can provide the appropriate documentation to support my charges of Fraud and Fiduciary misconduct by the Retirement Board and its Counsel.

 

Finally, in February 1998 a local attorney, who represented the Retirement Board seeking attorney’s fees in a Rule 11 Hearing which I argued and won, told me that what the NFL Retirement Board was doing was committing “fraud”, his name is Mark Cohen a Miami Based Attorney hired by the Groom Law Group.

 

I am positive that if subpoenaed Mr. Cohen would be forced to tell the truth. I believe he would not lie if he were under oath. I have evidence to support this allegation.

 

I hope you will at least consider the fact that no one you could call would be able to provide and uncover the facts and evidence to support the charge of willful misconduct, fraud, misrepresentation and a clear violation of Sec 404, 502 and 302 of the ERISA code Other than Bernie Parrish and myself.

 

We have been working together on this case for almost two years. If you want the facts and the evidence to support our claims we can provide it.

 

You tell us what you are trying to accomplish and we can help you ask the kind of questions that will cause the Plan Trustees and advisors to tell the truth … I’ll give you an example:     Someone, a staffer on the committee was quoted:

“A lot of these players are losing when they are before the Retirement Board.”

 

Actually the new system is set up so the Retirement Board does not make the decision on Disability Benefits; the Retirement Board only makes decisions on denials of disability claims made by the Disability initial Claims committee.

 

The Retirement Board delegated the authority to decide disability claims without a “Trustee Fiduciary responsibility obligation” as is mandated by ERISA. These two women have no subjective experiential knowledge in the field of Medical Expertise or about football. Plan Counsel has stated that the Player Member’s “Football experience” is “an asset” to determine Benefit claims yet the two people who actually decide Disability claims have no experience in either requirement. Both members of the Disability Initial Claims Committee have experience in the insurance business in “denying” disability Claims.

 

If one of these women decides that the Player is not qualified, the Players benefit is denied. Under ERISA the Fiduciary must have a loyalty to the Plan Participant; while the Disability Claims Committee states that the “decisions are black and white, you either qualify or you don’t” This statement contradicts the Plan’s Terms under Fiduciary Responsibility at Sec. 404 of ERISA.

 

That is not the “required” “conscience” of a Fiduciary described in Sec 404 of ERISA Code. For the Record; the Retirement Board does not make the decision on disability claims, yet they went to court in order to have the Doctors’ decision overruled by the Court in favor the Trustees “discretion” in the deciding of the disability Claims, Plan Counsel Doug Ell, stated that the treating Physicians rule under the Plans Terms “ violates ERISA Law”. It seems now that the NFL and the Union are offering the same “violation” of the ERISA Law as now being a “solution” regarding the Social Security Treating Physician Rule and access to the Plan’s Total and Permanent disability Benefits.

 

As I stated earlier, in the “Department of Labor” file note regarding a legal Conclusion that the $140,000.00 spent to give the Trustees, discretion over the Doctors ruling, contradicts the statement released  by the NFL stating that the league said Players, get as much as $224,000.00 annually. Mr. Ell failed to disclose exactly how many Players the Trustees have awarded the maximum amount. NFLPA represented Counsel, Doug Ell failed to state how many times the Retirement Board has without cause simply taken back that Players high paying benefit and replaced it with a lower paying benefit titled “Inactive disability benefit.”

 

They also left out the part that said 3 years ago Groom, Doug Ell went to Court to block a Player’s access by a “medical” determination that would grant the Player $224,000.00.

For the record; not much more than a dozen Players actually get the full amount of the Benefit that pays $224,000.00; however, every press release points to the number of Players receiving Disability as “317.” Breaking down the actual number in each group would be both “telling” and embarrassing which explains why “they” use a general number and not a specific breakdown of the actual number of Players receiving disability.

 

In 1995, the Retirement Board Counsel changed the Terms of the Plan to limit the Player’s disability claim by creating a category that pays $1,500.00 a month for what the Retirement Board now calls an “Inactive Disability Benefit”, which equates to a normal or regular Retirement Benefit amount. The “play on words” “inactive” means you’re not getting disability you are getting a Retirement Benefit, over 160 Players receive this “inactive” disability benefit which pays the lowest benefit amount under disability.

 

In order to qualify for a larger amount offered you have to qualify through the new “gauntlet” of qualification requirements inserted by the Retirement Board Counsel after the 1993 CBA. Since then the Plan has been gutted and rewritten to exclude the Retired Players by simply rewriting the Plan’s Terms. The “Collective Bargaining parties” were created in order to exclude the Retired Players from the bargaining process. This is commonly known as “segregation” to separate one group from another.

 

The changes in the Plan by the Retirement Board’s Counsel; The Groom Law Group have adversely affected the way in which the Plan is administered and has adversely affected the “quality of life” issues of the Retired Players, especially those seeking disability Benefits and those seeking a fair equity for Retired Players Retirement Benefits

 

A thorough investigation of the actions and conduct of the NFLPA and Management will produce the same results I have discovered in uncovering the facts surrounding the Disability and Retirement Plans, which by law are in existence solely for the benefit of the Player especially those seeking Disability Benefits. This system now “protects Plan Assets” from Players as opposed to providing Benefits for Players, under ERISA laws.

 

The Plan has been compromised by the two Collective Bargaining Parties; who also act as the self named Fiduciaries to the Plan. The NFL Management Counsel and the NFLPA, by definition are violating the Law. Look up the words, “Fiduciary” and “Trustee”; then you will have a better understanding about who these people are in providing benefits for Players and why these problems exist today. As “trustees” by definition these people simply cannot be trusted with the welfare of the retired Players. Their actions clearly prove that assertion.

 

The NFLPA and the Owners being charged of the Retired Players Benefits is like the Klan being in charge of Civil Rights. Fundamentally you know it won’t work simply because of who they are. They used to call them Slave Owners … now they just call them the Owners … but they still deal in human trade.