Author Topic: A college basketball bribery scandal leads to arrests of 10 people — including an Adidas executive  (Read 678 times)

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A college basketball bribery scandal leads to arrests of 10 people — including an Adidas executive
Kate Taylor
Business Insider
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The FBI arrested 10 people on charges of charges of fraud and corruption in college basketball on Tuesday.

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that  college basketball coaches at University of Arizona, Auburn, San Diego State, and Oklahoma State University and had been arrested, as well as managers, financial advisors, and representatives of a major international sportswear company.

Jim Gatto, director of global sports marketing for basketball at Adidas, was also named as a defendant.

Gatto and four other defendants have been charged with "making and concealing bribe payments" to high school student athletes and/or their families. Other defendants include Jonathan Brad Augustine, president of nonprofit The League Initiative, Merl Code, the head of Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League as of 2013, and Christian Dawkins, a former sports agent fired in May for charging $42,000 in Uber rides on an NBA player's credit card.

The coaches arrested include: Anthony "Tony" Bland, an assistant coach at San Diego State; Chuck Connors Person, associate head coach at Auburn University; Lamont Evans, associate head coach and recruiting coordinator for Oklahoma State University’s basketball team; and Emmanuel Richardson, an assistant coach for University of Arizona.   ...
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U.S. Department of Justice press release
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Press Conference Advisory

There will be a press conference today at noon to announce charges of fraud and corruption in college basketball.  Federal criminal charges have been brought against ten people, including four college basketball coaches, as well as managers, financial advisors, and representatives of a major international sportswear company.  The press conference will be livestreamed on Facebook @USAOSDNY.

WHO: 

Joon H. Kim, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York

William F. Sweeney, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

WHEN: 

Tuesday, September 26, 2017 at 12 p.m.

WHERE:

U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York
1 St. Andrew’s Plaza
New York, NY 10007
 
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FBI probe uncovers massive college basketball scandal snaring big-time programs
Dan Wetzel,Yahoo Sports
51 minutes ago
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The worst-kept secret in college basketball is how coaches, sneaker executives, sports agents, travel-team coaches and financial advisers, often through under-the-table payments, steer top high school talent first to NCAA programs and later to apparel brands and professional representation once they enter the NBA.

Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York blew this shadowy world open in ways that have never before been seen, indicting 10 men, including active assistant basketball coaches at Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State and USC, plus an executive for adidas, in a widespread case that is sure to rock college basketball to its core.

While only four schools are currently involved, the complaints will provide a treasure map for NCAA investigators as it tells stories of endless payouts and kickbacks in the recruitment of numerous top prospects over the past three years.

And that’s before any of the involved agree to cooperate with authorities.  ...

One case among many in the three complaints, which total nearly 200 pages, states adidas’ Gatto, financial planner Munish Sood and agent Christian Dawkins “conspired to illicitly funnel approximately $100,000 from company-1 to the family of Player-10, an All-American high school basketball player; to assist one or more coaches at University-6, a school sponsored by Company-1, and to further ensure that Player-6 ultimately retained the services of Dawkins and Sood and signed with Company-1 upon entering the NBA.

“The bribe money was structured in a manner so to conceal it from the NCAA and officials at University-6 by among other things having Company-1 wire money to a third party consultants who them facilitated cash payments to Player-10s family.”  ...
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FBI brings Armageddon to college basketball, and it's just the tip of the iceberg
Dan Wetzel
Yahoo Sports
Sep 26, 2017, 2:45 PM
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The federal government dropped a bomb on college basketball Tuesday, indicting 10 men in a wide-spread fraud and bribery scheme involving top recruits, college programs, agents, financial planners and the shoe and apparel company Adidas.

It’s thorough. It’s ugly. It’s unprecedented.

“Fraud and corruption in the world of college basketball,” Joon H. Kim, Acting U.S. Attorney said at a news conference in Manhattan on Tuesday.  ...

Also in the crossfire is so-called “University 2,” which in the complaints is described in a way that resembles the University of South Carolina and only the University of South Carolina – “a public research university located in South Carolina … with over 30,000 students …”

Then there is “University 6” which is described in a way that resembles the University of Louisville and only the University of Louisville, linking it to a $100,000 payout for one recruit and a potential $150,000 payout for another, all while on probation for a scandal involving using prostitutes to lure other recruits. “University 6” doesn’t appear to be in any legal trouble, yet, but the NCAA is another story.  ...
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....  "I had no part -- active, passive, or through willful ignorance -- in the conspiracy described in the complaint," Pitino said in the affidavit. "I had no reason to know about the conspiracy described in the complaint, and no reason to know about the complicity of any UL assistant coach or staff member in any bribery conspiracy. I never have had any part -- active, passive, or through willful ignorance -- in any effort, successful or unsuccessful, completed or abandoned, to pay any recruit, or any family member of a recruit, or anyone else on a recruit's behalf, as an inducement to attend UL."  ...
ESPN: Louisville votes to terminate Rick Pitino's contract 'with just cause'
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