Columnist Dean Juipe: Top Rank weathers FBI storm

Dean Juipe

Friday, Feb. 27, 2004 | 10:47 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Approached by a local TV sportscaster who was looking for file video of Jesus Chavez, Top Rank publicist Lee Samuels laughed Thursday while indicating his company no longer has access to its extensive video library.

"I can tell you where they're at, though," he said of the tapes, and the meaning was clear: To see almost anything Top Rank recorded or had on file in its offices before Jan. 6, a person would have to visit the local office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 700 E. Charleston.

The FBI, of course, raided Top Rank's Las Vegas compound some six weeks ago and confiscated much of its inventory, and the firm is just now -- and just barely -- regaining its sense of balance. Its employees are still barred from talking about the raid, the investigation or any of its tangents, but at least the men and women who work for promoter Bob Arum and his company are no longer hiding out or dodging newsmen.

"If I said it didn't bother me, obviously I'd be lying," Arum said of the raid and the FBI's looming presence. "But I've accepted it.

"The only thing we can do now is go about our business."

That was Arum's first public comment on the matter and I knew better than to pry or to see what else I could get out of him. He has been advised by his legal counsel to not say anything -- lest it be misconstrued (or incriminating) -- and he's inclined to stick to it, even if his natural inclination is to defend himself.

"The truth is, we've been busier than ever," he added, Top Rank not only having a Saturday fight at the MGM Grand Garden between Chavez and Erik Morales but also having just signed Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins to a pair of fights and having a number of high- and lower-profile cards taking shape or already scheduled.

The FBI may have disrupted Top Rank but it hasn't negatively impacted the firm beyond the obvious.

Its private gym, which was off-limits to reporters in the immediate aftermath of the raid, is now back open on at least an appointment basis.

And its well-researched and knowledgeable staff -- including matchmaker Bruce Trampler -- finally has clearance to talk about boxing, which wasn't the case in the initial days and weeks after the raid.

"You know what's the scariest thing about all of this?" said a highly placed executive in the sport, speaking confidentially about the FBI busting down the doors at Top Rank. "It's that the feds were looking at Arum. If it would have been (rival promoter) Don King, no one would have thought a thing about it.

"But Arum ... Arum's a former government lawyer. It's beyond belief that he would be involved in anything (so illicit) that the FBI would get involved."

The fear is this: If the FBI can go after Arum and make him squirm, it can certainly do the same (with maybe even better results) with lesser promoters and business entities across the country. If Top Rank had something to hide, the theory goes, so then will everyone else in the sport.

But I still think the FBI is on a fishing trip here, seeing what it can land while tearing into an established, reputable company that is involved in an occasionally corrupt, rule-bending business. It may be doing nothing more than compiling bound volumes of tidbits both pertinent and irrelevant, with an eye toward eventually getting Congress involved in legislating the sport.

The anecdotal information that has surfaced on or off the record concerning the FBI's intent continues to indicate that it has very little of substance to address. Petty fights and petty behind-the-scenes characters continue to dominate those accounts.

So I'm sticking to my earlier view: Either the FBI will come up empty and will back off and not prosecute Arum or Top Rank, or it will change the focus of its investigation to some other, still vague, area of judicatory review.

Slowly but surely, I think things will get back to normal at Top Rank -- or at least as normal as a traumatic run-in with the FBI will allow.

An encouraging sign will come when Samuels can tell a TV guy he has all the Jesus Chavez -- and Butterbean -- tapes a newsman could ever need, right there at his disposal, just as he was able to do before the feds so rudely interrupted.