Ex-White Sox exec gets 2-year sentence in kickback case

CHICAGO — Former Chicago White Sox executive David Wilder was sentenced to two years in prison for his role in a scheme to take more than $440,000 in kickbacks from Latin American baseball players as they were signed.

U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle in Chicago imposed the punishment at a hearing today, saying “the loss here is to the White Sox.”

Wilder, who worked for the Major League Baseball team for five years, as director of its player development system and then as senior director of player personnel, was indicted in 2010 and pleaded guilty to a single mail fraud count in 2011.

“There’s not a whole lot I can say to take back what I’ve done,” Wilder told Norgle before being sentenced today. “I did a bad thing.”

Kickbacks were collected from 23 players from December 2004 to February 2008, “an extended period of time,” Norgle said. The players’ names haven’t been made public. The White Sox won the World Series in 2005.

Two of the team’s Latin American scouts were also charged and later entered guilty pleas. Jorge Oquendo Rivera was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Victor Mateo is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 18.

Norgle ordered Wilder to pay the team $440,781 in restitution. Wilder shares that liability with Oquendo, who was ordered to pay the same sum when sentenced in June.

“This has been a painful betrayal for the team,” the White Sox said in an e-mailed statement. “It is a relief to have closed this final chapter today.”