Report: FBI seized computers from Busch Stadium in February
The FBI seized computers from Busch Stadium in late February as part of its investigation into St. Louis Cardinals' alleged hacking of the Houston Astros' internal computer network, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
The FBI's investigation was first reported Tuesday by The New York Times and later confirmed by the club and Major League Baseball.
The investigation is reportedly focused on multiple unnamed front office officials. A St. Louis-based attorney who specializes in white collar crimes, Matthew Schelp, confirmed to the Post-Dispatch that he represents several members of the Cardinals' analytics department who are part of the investigation.
Last June, data from the Astros' computer database was posted to a website called Anonbin, which is no longer active. A post on Deadspin then called attention to the leak, at which point MLB notified the FBI that Houston's system may have been hacked. (Deadspin wrote more Wednesday about how it was tipped off to the files.) The subsequent investigation reportedly found that the database had been accessed from a house used by multiple Cardinals employees.
“These are serious allegations that don't reflect who we are as an organization,” Cardinals owner William DeWitt Jr. said in a statement. “We are committed to getting to the bottom of this matter as soon as possible and if anyone within our organization is determined to be involved in anything inappropriate, they will be held accountable.”
The Cardinals said that they hired another white collar defense lawyer, Jim Martin of St. Louis firm Dowd Bennett, several months ago after the team learned of the investigation. Martin is conducting an internal inquiry that “is not yet complete,” he said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Martin told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he is “100 percent confident that these concerns do not touch upper management and specifically Mozeliak and DeWitt.”
- Dan Gartland
