The only thing missing from what happened today is Trump calling for all college head coaches at schools in the Power Five conferences to be fired. LOL
Fraud and Corruption Charges in College Basketball - noon presser
- Thread starter dcPirate
- Start date
The darkest day in NCAA hoops history is only the beginning
By Mike Vaccaro
September 26, 2017 | 5:58pm
This was a couple of years before Al McGuire’s laugh and his voice would finally be silenced by the leukemia, he was sitting in a New York saloon and talking about old times that weren’t necessarily good times.
“Referees, you can reason with them,” McGuire said. “It’s when the District Attorney comes knocking at your door that you start worrying about more than getting slapped with a technical foul.”
McGuire was speaking about the awful winter of 1951, his senior year at St. John’s, when the lid was blown off college basketball, when Madison Square Garden was exposed as a den of iniquity, the wise guys getting their hooks in the sport — and its players — and not letting go until it was Frank Hogan, the Manhattan D.A., coming with a different set of tendrils.
“These were kids I’d known my whole life,” McGuire said. “And they’re on the front page of the papers like gangsters and presidents.”
College basketball nearly perished thanks to those point-shaving scandals, first in 1951, later in 1961, but always managed to come back from the terrible headlines and peripheral characters.
But the sport has never known a darker day than Tuesday, when the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office announced the arrest of four Division I basketball coaches and six other men on bribery and fraud charges.
McGuire thought Hogan was a tough nut to crack?
Compared to the Feds, he was handing out parking tickets.
“We have your playbook,” New York FBI Assistant Director in Charge William Sweeney said at a news conference. “Our investigation is ongoing, and we are conducting additional interviews as we speak.”
is in the FBI’s crosshairs. Originally referred to in the FBI complaint as “School #6,” but easily identified by the report’s description, Louisville later issued a statement:
“Today, the University of Louisville received notice that it is included in a federal investigation involving criminal activity related to men’s basketball recruiting.”
That’s awful news for Louisville, and quite possibly a death knell for the career of Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, who played his high school ball at St. Dominic’s in Oyster Bay and later coached the Knicks before taking the University of Kentucky job in 1989 after UK had nearly been handed the death penalty by the NCAA.
Pitino already has survived two sordid scandals that almost nobody else would – an extortion revelation in 2009 stemming from an extra-marital affair, and then an alleged prostitution ring run by one of his former assistant coaches that landed the Cardinals on probation, will force them to vacate victories, and was going to cost Pitino the first five games of this year’s ACC season via suspension.
Now, it is impossible to see how Pitino ever makes it out of this week with his job, and the same goes for his boss, AD Tom Jurich.
SEE ALSO
FBI sting has Louisville in its crosshairs
And that’s just one school. There are others, and the FBI hasn’t even started putting the screws to anyone yet. The NCAA has long been seen – quite properly – as a toothless sheriff, with no subpoena power and little to offer in the way of real ramifications. Cheating on the recruiting trail in college sports may be distasteful, but it isn’t illegal.
But bribery? Fraud?
Those are crimes. And the Feds have a better winning percentage than Geno Auriemma.
And basketball coaches – so many of whom were reportedly huddling with assistants Tuesday, trying to figure out if any tentacles could lead to them – are notorious deal-makers by trade. And that’s when it’s trying to lure a power forward to campus. If jail time is on the table instead?
It’ll look like the griddle at Waffle House with all the flipping.
“The madness of college basketball went well beyond the madness of March,” Kim said Tuesday, and those dozen words rocked the very spine of a sport that thought its worst scandals were things of the past. Think again.
By Mike Vaccaro
September 26, 2017 | 5:58pm
This was a couple of years before Al McGuire’s laugh and his voice would finally be silenced by the leukemia, he was sitting in a New York saloon and talking about old times that weren’t necessarily good times.
“Referees, you can reason with them,” McGuire said. “It’s when the District Attorney comes knocking at your door that you start worrying about more than getting slapped with a technical foul.”
McGuire was speaking about the awful winter of 1951, his senior year at St. John’s, when the lid was blown off college basketball, when Madison Square Garden was exposed as a den of iniquity, the wise guys getting their hooks in the sport — and its players — and not letting go until it was Frank Hogan, the Manhattan D.A., coming with a different set of tendrils.
“These were kids I’d known my whole life,” McGuire said. “And they’re on the front page of the papers like gangsters and presidents.”
College basketball nearly perished thanks to those point-shaving scandals, first in 1951, later in 1961, but always managed to come back from the terrible headlines and peripheral characters.
But the sport has never known a darker day than Tuesday, when the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office announced the arrest of four Division I basketball coaches and six other men on bribery and fraud charges.
McGuire thought Hogan was a tough nut to crack?
Compared to the Feds, he was handing out parking tickets.
“We have your playbook,” New York FBI Assistant Director in Charge William Sweeney said at a news conference. “Our investigation is ongoing, and we are conducting additional interviews as we speak.”
is in the FBI’s crosshairs. Originally referred to in the FBI complaint as “School #6,” but easily identified by the report’s description, Louisville later issued a statement:
“Today, the University of Louisville received notice that it is included in a federal investigation involving criminal activity related to men’s basketball recruiting.”
That’s awful news for Louisville, and quite possibly a death knell for the career of Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, who played his high school ball at St. Dominic’s in Oyster Bay and later coached the Knicks before taking the University of Kentucky job in 1989 after UK had nearly been handed the death penalty by the NCAA.
Pitino already has survived two sordid scandals that almost nobody else would – an extortion revelation in 2009 stemming from an extra-marital affair, and then an alleged prostitution ring run by one of his former assistant coaches that landed the Cardinals on probation, will force them to vacate victories, and was going to cost Pitino the first five games of this year’s ACC season via suspension.
Now, it is impossible to see how Pitino ever makes it out of this week with his job, and the same goes for his boss, AD Tom Jurich.
SEE ALSO
FBI sting has Louisville in its crosshairs
And that’s just one school. There are others, and the FBI hasn’t even started putting the screws to anyone yet. The NCAA has long been seen – quite properly – as a toothless sheriff, with no subpoena power and little to offer in the way of real ramifications. Cheating on the recruiting trail in college sports may be distasteful, but it isn’t illegal.
But bribery? Fraud?
Those are crimes. And the Feds have a better winning percentage than Geno Auriemma.
And basketball coaches – so many of whom were reportedly huddling with assistants Tuesday, trying to figure out if any tentacles could lead to them – are notorious deal-makers by trade. And that’s when it’s trying to lure a power forward to campus. If jail time is on the table instead?
It’ll look like the griddle at Waffle House with all the flipping.
“The madness of college basketball went well beyond the madness of March,” Kim said Tuesday, and those dozen words rocked the very spine of a sport that thought its worst scandals were things of the past. Think again.
Oh I think there will be some who are charged who will be more than happy to turn evidence against their "peers" in exchange for less time in the Big House...and no I am not referring to the U of M football stadium
Sources: Basketball agency ASM Sports was raided today. FBI had warrant, took Andy Miller's computer.
What you need to know about the FBI's NCAA basketball investigation
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has announced federal corruption charges against four NCAA assistant basketball coaches on Tuesday.
The three-year FBI probe focused on coaches being paid tens of thousands of dollars to steer NBA-bound players toward sports agents, financial advisers and apparel companies.
Here's what we know regarding the federal probe into corruption and fraud in college basketball:
What are the charges?
As announced by U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim at a press conference on Tuesday, federal authorities have brought forth two distinct sets of allegations.
Under the first group of charges, the U.S. Attorney is alleging that assistant coaches at Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State and USC "took cash bribes" in order to steer elite basketball players toward certain financial advisors and sports agents. The assistants named in the indictment are Chuck Person (Auburn), Emanuel Richardson (Arizona), Lamont Evans (Oklahoma State) and Tony Bland (USC).
Brian Bowen, was to receive $100,000 from the "sportswear" company. The government also charges that Person received $91,500 from sports agents and/or financial advisors, of which he is said to have forwarded $18,500 on to players and their families.
Could other programs or individuals face charges?
Yes. The FBI investigation is ongoing.
An FBI spokesperson at Tuesday's press conference also warned others who could be involved in corrupt practices.
Joon H. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, describes the alleged involvement of college basketball coaches in bribery and recruiting scheme. Justin Lane/EPA
"We have your playbook," the spokesperson said. "... If you are involved in this, call us. It will be better for you to call us than for us to call you."
A phone number for a tip line was also given out at the press conference for anyone who wants to come forward with information.
Why is giving money to an assistant coach or to a young basketball player against the law?
The charges brought forward include violations of federal statutes on bribery and wire fraud, among other laws. Any assistant coach found to be taking bribes while employed by an institution receiving federal funds, for example, could be liable to prosecution under federal law.
What is the NCAA's reaction?
"The nature of the charges brought by the federal government are deeply disturbing," said NCAA president Mark Emmert in a statement. "We have no tolerance whatsoever for this alleged behavior. Coaches hold a unique position of trust with student-athletes and their families and these bribery allegations, if true, suggest an extraordinary and despicable breach of that trust. We learned of these charges this morning and of course will support the ongoing criminal federal investigation."
The NCAA was made aware of the investigation on Tuesday as well.
Have the schools taken any action?
Yes. Auburn suspended Person without pay effective immediately.
Oklahoma State suspended Evans with pay.
Arizona suspended Richardson and relieved him of all duties.
USC placed Bland on administrative leave. USC also announced that it has hired former FBI director Louis Freeh to conduct an internal investigation.
In 2011, Freeh conducted an internal investigation of the Penn State child sexual abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky.
What happens next?
As noted at the press conference, the FBI is still pursuing its efforts but no longer doing so as a "covert" investigation. The phone number for tip line is being prominently publicized, and no one can say how many more shoes will drop.
Speaking strictly in terms of college sports, the behaviors alleged by federal authorities also constitute violations of NCAA bylaws.
According to official protocol, the NCAA notifies an athletic program that it's under investigation if the NCAA has found sufficient evidence. Then a series of hearings are held, often in front of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions. Lastly, after the NCAA renders its verdict and the program is given a chance to appeal, a final decision is handed down. This can be anything from a reduction in scholarships or a postseason ban on the basketball team, to a show-cause order on a coach that prohibits him from being hired by anymember institution for a stated number of years.
NCAA investigations can take anywhere from a few months to a number of years to reach a resolution. The NCAA's current investigation into alleged academic fraud at the University of North Carolina, for example, began in June of 2014.
What about the head coaches at these programs?
The assistants charged by the authorities have larger concerns than their employment statuses right now. As for the head coaches that employed them, the first question will be simply whether any of the charged defendants come forward with information directly implicating their head coaches.
Assuming no further information comes out documenting that head coaches had knowledge of what was taking place, much will depend on these coaches' previous track records in terms of compliance with NCAA rules, as well as the language on their current contracts. If the past is any guide, any terminations issued by university presidents could well be made the subject of a wrongful termination suit by the head coach who was fired.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...t-need-know-fbi-ncaa-basketball-investigation
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John GasawayESPN
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has announced federal corruption charges against four NCAA assistant basketball coaches on Tuesday.
The three-year FBI probe focused on coaches being paid tens of thousands of dollars to steer NBA-bound players toward sports agents, financial advisers and apparel companies.
Here's what we know regarding the federal probe into corruption and fraud in college basketball:
What are the charges?
As announced by U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim at a press conference on Tuesday, federal authorities have brought forth two distinct sets of allegations.
Under the first group of charges, the U.S. Attorney is alleging that assistant coaches at Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State and USC "took cash bribes" in order to steer elite basketball players toward certain financial advisors and sports agents. The assistants named in the indictment are Chuck Person (Auburn), Emanuel Richardson (Arizona), Lamont Evans (Oklahoma State) and Tony Bland (USC).
Brian Bowen, was to receive $100,000 from the "sportswear" company. The government also charges that Person received $91,500 from sports agents and/or financial advisors, of which he is said to have forwarded $18,500 on to players and their families.
Could other programs or individuals face charges?
Yes. The FBI investigation is ongoing.
An FBI spokesperson at Tuesday's press conference also warned others who could be involved in corrupt practices.
Joon H. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, describes the alleged involvement of college basketball coaches in bribery and recruiting scheme. Justin Lane/EPA
"We have your playbook," the spokesperson said. "... If you are involved in this, call us. It will be better for you to call us than for us to call you."
A phone number for a tip line was also given out at the press conference for anyone who wants to come forward with information.
Why is giving money to an assistant coach or to a young basketball player against the law?
The charges brought forward include violations of federal statutes on bribery and wire fraud, among other laws. Any assistant coach found to be taking bribes while employed by an institution receiving federal funds, for example, could be liable to prosecution under federal law.
What is the NCAA's reaction?
"The nature of the charges brought by the federal government are deeply disturbing," said NCAA president Mark Emmert in a statement. "We have no tolerance whatsoever for this alleged behavior. Coaches hold a unique position of trust with student-athletes and their families and these bribery allegations, if true, suggest an extraordinary and despicable breach of that trust. We learned of these charges this morning and of course will support the ongoing criminal federal investigation."
The NCAA was made aware of the investigation on Tuesday as well.
Have the schools taken any action?
Yes. Auburn suspended Person without pay effective immediately.
Oklahoma State suspended Evans with pay.
Arizona suspended Richardson and relieved him of all duties.
USC placed Bland on administrative leave. USC also announced that it has hired former FBI director Louis Freeh to conduct an internal investigation.
In 2011, Freeh conducted an internal investigation of the Penn State child sexual abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky.
What happens next?
As noted at the press conference, the FBI is still pursuing its efforts but no longer doing so as a "covert" investigation. The phone number for tip line is being prominently publicized, and no one can say how many more shoes will drop.
Speaking strictly in terms of college sports, the behaviors alleged by federal authorities also constitute violations of NCAA bylaws.
According to official protocol, the NCAA notifies an athletic program that it's under investigation if the NCAA has found sufficient evidence. Then a series of hearings are held, often in front of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions. Lastly, after the NCAA renders its verdict and the program is given a chance to appeal, a final decision is handed down. This can be anything from a reduction in scholarships or a postseason ban on the basketball team, to a show-cause order on a coach that prohibits him from being hired by anymember institution for a stated number of years.
NCAA investigations can take anywhere from a few months to a number of years to reach a resolution. The NCAA's current investigation into alleged academic fraud at the University of North Carolina, for example, began in June of 2014.
What about the head coaches at these programs?
The assistants charged by the authorities have larger concerns than their employment statuses right now. As for the head coaches that employed them, the first question will be simply whether any of the charged defendants come forward with information directly implicating their head coaches.
Assuming no further information comes out documenting that head coaches had knowledge of what was taking place, much will depend on these coaches' previous track records in terms of compliance with NCAA rules, as well as the language on their current contracts. If the past is any guide, any terminations issued by university presidents could well be made the subject of a wrongful termination suit by the head coach who was fired.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...t-need-know-fbi-ncaa-basketball-investigation
I love how they keep saying this is a dark day for college basketball or another synonymous phrase. This is a GREAT day for the sport, and maybe shows there's hope for a return someday to some semblance of amateurism at the high major level. Like Dan said, bending the rules and out & out bribery are two very different things.
No Bowen, no Pitino & no Louisville AD make our December muuuuuuch more interesting if things shake out how they should. That school/team could be in utter tumult by 12/3.
No Bowen, no Pitino & no Louisville AD make our December muuuuuuch more interesting if things shake out how they should. That school/team could be in utter tumult by 12/3.
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I suspect some people will feel an emergent need to file amended tax returns. Hopefully, the DOJ is given the time and resources to take this as far as it goes.
Right. It's only a dark day if your head has been completely buried in the sand for sixty years about the way the game conducts itself.
I don't think we'll ever get back to pure amateurism - it would require a complete rupture of the sport as we know it, and there is still way too much money there for the taking - but if it serves to mitigate the noxious influence of the sneaker/apparel companies alone, that is a very good thing.
There will be a short term benefit from this federal action but whether it will be sustainable over the long term is not a given. What will happen that is long overdue is that the sports apparel companies will be far more cautious about what they do and how they deal with colleges and player agents and financial advisors.
Former AAU basketball coach says those wrapped up in college basketball scandal will flip for feds
Dan Wetzel
Columnist/Rivals
In April of 2000, Myron Piggie, a former convicted felon turned nationally prominent AAU basketball coach, was indicted on 11 counts of fraud by the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
At the heart of both cases were payments to top high school players from shoe companies (then Nike, now Adidas) and agents that were designed to steer them to favorable colleges before later getting them to sign with the same shoe companies, agents and financial planners when they reached the NBA.
Now he found himself seated, with a lawyer at his side, across a conference table from the FBI. The feds had him over a barrel thanks to a weapons charge that, because he was already a felon, carried an automatic nine-year sentence. To get that wiped out, prosecutors said he had to plead guilty to funneling money to the players, according to Piggie.
Yet there was a twist. Roll up on everyone else, Piggie said he was told, from college coaches to Nike officials, and the case would soften.
“They said they’d give me probation,” Piggie told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday.
How far will this NCAA scandal reach? (AP)
Piggie was a treasure trove of stories and dirt. His players were involved in wild recruiting wars by dozens of top college programs and their boosters. Agents hovered around at all times. And he enjoyed a tight and lucrative relationship with Nike. He could have clearly detailed how the underbelly of the sport works. He knew it all, big-name careers at his mercy.
“I could have talked about everyone,” Piggie said. “I could have put other people away. I could have put five, six schools on probation.”
Yet he didn’t. He refused to cooperate and wound up serving 37 months in federal prisons in Leavenworth, Kansas, and Forest City, Arkansas. He said the extended time was preferable to snitching, even if it was just about college basketball.
“That’s the street code,” Piggie said. “I couldn’t do that. Not where I was at that place; not how I was brought up.”
With that, college basketball avoided a far-reaching scandal that could have ripped the sport apart. Instead, all the blame was placed on Piggie, who was little more than a colorful middleman. After all, not even the government claimed it was his money that it said was getting doled out to the recruits. Maybe most importantly, many of his former players, to this day, still swear by him as a mentor and friend. That matters most.
So as the news of another scandal broke Tuesday he just laughed.
“See, it didn’t end when I got out, it just got bigger and bigger,” Piggie said.
The feds again are looking for people to flip on the sport, to tell tales, to point fingers, to bring evidence. Tuesday they asked witnesses and even perpetrators to come forward and earn leniency. Seventeen years ago a Kansas City street guy and one-time drug dealer rebuffed them. What about with these guys?
“They’ll talk,” Piggie said Tuesday with a laugh. “They’ve got no [balls]. These are basketball coaches; they’ll do whatever to save themselves.”
Dan Wetzel
Columnist/Rivals
In April of 2000, Myron Piggie, a former convicted felon turned nationally prominent AAU basketball coach, was indicted on 11 counts of fraud by the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
At the heart of both cases were payments to top high school players from shoe companies (then Nike, now Adidas) and agents that were designed to steer them to favorable colleges before later getting them to sign with the same shoe companies, agents and financial planners when they reached the NBA.
Now he found himself seated, with a lawyer at his side, across a conference table from the FBI. The feds had him over a barrel thanks to a weapons charge that, because he was already a felon, carried an automatic nine-year sentence. To get that wiped out, prosecutors said he had to plead guilty to funneling money to the players, according to Piggie.
Yet there was a twist. Roll up on everyone else, Piggie said he was told, from college coaches to Nike officials, and the case would soften.
“They said they’d give me probation,” Piggie told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday.
How far will this NCAA scandal reach? (AP)
Piggie was a treasure trove of stories and dirt. His players were involved in wild recruiting wars by dozens of top college programs and their boosters. Agents hovered around at all times. And he enjoyed a tight and lucrative relationship with Nike. He could have clearly detailed how the underbelly of the sport works. He knew it all, big-name careers at his mercy.
“I could have talked about everyone,” Piggie said. “I could have put other people away. I could have put five, six schools on probation.”
Yet he didn’t. He refused to cooperate and wound up serving 37 months in federal prisons in Leavenworth, Kansas, and Forest City, Arkansas. He said the extended time was preferable to snitching, even if it was just about college basketball.
“That’s the street code,” Piggie said. “I couldn’t do that. Not where I was at that place; not how I was brought up.”
With that, college basketball avoided a far-reaching scandal that could have ripped the sport apart. Instead, all the blame was placed on Piggie, who was little more than a colorful middleman. After all, not even the government claimed it was his money that it said was getting doled out to the recruits. Maybe most importantly, many of his former players, to this day, still swear by him as a mentor and friend. That matters most.
So as the news of another scandal broke Tuesday he just laughed.
“See, it didn’t end when I got out, it just got bigger and bigger,” Piggie said.
The feds again are looking for people to flip on the sport, to tell tales, to point fingers, to bring evidence. Tuesday they asked witnesses and even perpetrators to come forward and earn leniency. Seventeen years ago a Kansas City street guy and one-time drug dealer rebuffed them. What about with these guys?
“They’ll talk,” Piggie said Tuesday with a laugh. “They’ve got no [balls]. These are basketball coaches; they’ll do whatever to save themselves.”
Perhaps. That’s certainly what prosecutors want. How much power U.S. attorneys have over the accused, though, remains to be seen.
While the three separate complaints are full of details and strong allegations, upon closer review the cases are neither overwhelming nor, in the scope of federal bribery cases, feature major monetary amounts. Many of the charges are applied under the “honest services fraud” statute (basically the assistant coaches steering players to certain agents, etc.). It usually covers public corruption.
While $100,000 for a basketball recruit may scream from the headlines, federal sentencing guidelines are set to handle far more major cases. That this is being used on college athletics is itself an unexpected stretch.
“In terms of federal criminal prosecution, the stakes are about as low as they get,” said Craig Mordock, a New Orleans-based criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor.
While technically some of the defendants are facing up to 80 years for fraud, committing bribery through a federally funded educational program (in this case a basketball program at a school that receives more than $10,000 in federal funds), money laundering and violation of the Travel Act, Mordock said there is virtually no chance a sentence like that is possible.
“Amount of loss controls almost everything in fraud cases and compared to what these judges see on a day in, day out basis, it is the equivalent of a ticket for driving 75 in a 55,” Mordock said. “And since these are part of a common scheme, they would almost certainly be sentenced concurring as well.”
For some, or even all the defendants, that could mean a likely sentence of as little as six months maximum prison time, which could be turned into just probation. It’s still a risk, but not as considerable as at first glance.
For some, or even all the defendants, that could mean a maximum of 27-33 months in prison, Mordock said, but if found guilty it is far more likely to be as little six months maximum prison time, which could be turned into just probation.
Authorities tacitly acknowledged Tuesday that their work is incomplete by reminding this was just the beginning.
“Our investigation is ongoing,” FBI assistant director Bill Sweeney warned. “And we are conducting interviews as we speak.”
Still, in the end, all it might take is one defendant who doesn’t want to risk prosecution at all.
The fear inside college basketball is that the FBI may uncover plenty of things that don’t meet their level, but would be devastating in terms of NCAA violations. In an affidavit, an undercover FBI agent who spearheaded the case said the complaints “do not include all of the facts that I have learned during the course of the investigation.”
That could lead to the kind of avalanche that prosecutors sought, but couldn’t get, from Piggie way back when.
Now 56, Piggie lives in Kansas City but is no longer involved in grassroots basketball. He says after he was indicted, pretty much everyone in the sport “turned on me.” If in 2000, he had the perspective he has today, he probably would skip what proved to be one-sided loyalty and instead just unloaded on the system, naming names and letting them deal with the NCAA and its rules.
“But back then I couldn’t do it,” Piggie said. “I couldn’t. I just did my time. I know this. They pinned it all on me, hammered me, blamed me and here we are. Same thing. It’s the same people, coaches, agents, shoe companies.”
It’s the same sport.
“I guess it turned out that it wasn’t all my fault.”
https://sports.yahoo.com/former-aau...ketball-scandal-will-flip-feds-034806204.html
While the three separate complaints are full of details and strong allegations, upon closer review the cases are neither overwhelming nor, in the scope of federal bribery cases, feature major monetary amounts. Many of the charges are applied under the “honest services fraud” statute (basically the assistant coaches steering players to certain agents, etc.). It usually covers public corruption.
While $100,000 for a basketball recruit may scream from the headlines, federal sentencing guidelines are set to handle far more major cases. That this is being used on college athletics is itself an unexpected stretch.
“In terms of federal criminal prosecution, the stakes are about as low as they get,” said Craig Mordock, a New Orleans-based criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor.
While technically some of the defendants are facing up to 80 years for fraud, committing bribery through a federally funded educational program (in this case a basketball program at a school that receives more than $10,000 in federal funds), money laundering and violation of the Travel Act, Mordock said there is virtually no chance a sentence like that is possible.
“Amount of loss controls almost everything in fraud cases and compared to what these judges see on a day in, day out basis, it is the equivalent of a ticket for driving 75 in a 55,” Mordock said. “And since these are part of a common scheme, they would almost certainly be sentenced concurring as well.”
For some, or even all the defendants, that could mean a likely sentence of as little as six months maximum prison time, which could be turned into just probation. It’s still a risk, but not as considerable as at first glance.
For some, or even all the defendants, that could mean a maximum of 27-33 months in prison, Mordock said, but if found guilty it is far more likely to be as little six months maximum prison time, which could be turned into just probation.
Authorities tacitly acknowledged Tuesday that their work is incomplete by reminding this was just the beginning.
“Our investigation is ongoing,” FBI assistant director Bill Sweeney warned. “And we are conducting interviews as we speak.”
Still, in the end, all it might take is one defendant who doesn’t want to risk prosecution at all.
The fear inside college basketball is that the FBI may uncover plenty of things that don’t meet their level, but would be devastating in terms of NCAA violations. In an affidavit, an undercover FBI agent who spearheaded the case said the complaints “do not include all of the facts that I have learned during the course of the investigation.”
That could lead to the kind of avalanche that prosecutors sought, but couldn’t get, from Piggie way back when.
Now 56, Piggie lives in Kansas City but is no longer involved in grassroots basketball. He says after he was indicted, pretty much everyone in the sport “turned on me.” If in 2000, he had the perspective he has today, he probably would skip what proved to be one-sided loyalty and instead just unloaded on the system, naming names and letting them deal with the NCAA and its rules.
“But back then I couldn’t do it,” Piggie said. “I couldn’t. I just did my time. I know this. They pinned it all on me, hammered me, blamed me and here we are. Same thing. It’s the same people, coaches, agents, shoe companies.”
It’s the same sport.
“I guess it turned out that it wasn’t all my fault.”
https://sports.yahoo.com/former-aau...ketball-scandal-will-flip-feds-034806204.html
A term that I've always hated, because in my mind it describes nothing but people out to make a buck while ruining the quality of the sport:
Grassroots basketball.
Grassroots basketball.
Agree on the grassroote quote. I believe that they are out there trying to make a buck off of some kids talent and do it by taking advantage of the kid and their families which to me is worse than ruining the sport. Goes on everyday. And the kids and the families are complicit but many come from poor and difficult circumstances so they are easy prey. I am still pissed about that agent DeFazio who talked Luther's mother into going to the NBA when PJ was clearly right saying he's a baby and is not ready. Follow the money...
Sonny Vaccaro: Schemes with apparel companies have existed 'forever'
Mike FishESPN Senior Writer
Vaccaro was the mastermind behind Nike's first signing of top college basketball coaches to shoe contracts. He later left for Adidas after a falling-out with Nike founder Phil Knight, thus creating an intense rivalry that continues to this day as the companies bid to attract coaches and outfit their programs. Along the way, Vaccaro angered NCAA officials in the 1980s and 1990s by influencing players' college choices.
One of the hires that Vaccaro said he made at Adidas in the 1990s was Jimmy Gatto, who rose to become the company's director of global sports marketing for basketball. Gatto, another Adidas employee, four assistant coaches at prominent collegiate programs and a cast of characters -- including an AAU coach, a financial adviser and a former agent -- were arrested Tuesday on federal corruption charges.
"I know Jimmy Gatto. I hired him," Vaccaro said from his home in Southern California. "An altar boy. I have known him since birth."
Vaccaro said Tuesday's news stunned him.
"This is like Abscam," he said, referring to the FBI sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s that ended up in a public corruption investigation that led to dozens of convictions, including seven members of Congress. "They tracked them and they got everybody. They all fell for the old fake money trick. The guy [the FBI's wired informant] was in the room. They had somebody that turned on them.
"I woke up and I got 50 calls or emails. I was absolutely shocked with the breadth of it. You got everybody in one story. You got agents, you got runners [who recruit players for the agents], you got assistant coaches, you got head coaches, you got money transferring, you got the [Adidas executive]."
Federal authorities suggested Tuesday that the arrests could be only the tip of the iceberg from a three-year FBI investigation centered on coaches being paid tens of thousands of dollars to steer NBA-bound players toward sports agents, financial advisers and apparel companies. Adidas reps also are accused of funneling money to players in a bid to get them to attend schools with which they have sponsorship deals, and documents indicated they were in some instances competing with a rival apparel company that was doing the same.
Vaccaro acknowledged the hustle existed back in his day, though the level of sophistication and money has only intensified.
As for how long it has existed, Vaccaro said, "I think forever. I don't think it was as organized as this thing. You have new characters. You and I wouldn't have been talking about financial advisers in the 1990s. And agents really weren't in vogue in the '90s. There were schools involved. You got new players now and they have the money."
Vaccaro started the ball rolling, rising from Pennsylvania steel town roots to become one of the most powerful and influential men in the athletic shoe industry and in basketball. He pioneered summer camps and high school all-star games. He hooked up Michael Jordan with Nike in 1984. With Adidas, he later discovered a young Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady -- outfitting his Mount Zion Academy team in Adidas gear and putting his coach on the payroll.
Early on, Vaccaro ruffled feathers when players from his Nike camps ended up playing for college coaches signed to Nike shoe deals.
"Every kid that I knew was probably picking a Nike school," Vaccaro said. "There was Georgetown and Patrick [Ewing]. There were a lot of other reasons that he went there. Going back to the '80s, they were all Nike schools. We had 80 of them. We won seven national championships in 11 years. So I would be cutting my face off [to favor a particular Nike school]. Maybe that kept me out of trouble, but I don't think I ever would have done that.
"Then, you had the '90s and the great players went pro [from high school]. Kobe and those guys didn't go to college. Tracy and Kobe, Kevin [Garnett] and LeBron [James] -- these kids didn't go to college."
The 1980s and 1990s were a different time. Programs were run by a head coach and two or three assistants. There wasn't a designated recruiting coordinator on staff, which was the job description of the assistants charged in the latest federal investigation.
And until Tuesday, almost all college scandals came under the scrutiny of NCAA investigators, who have limited investigative tools and power and who have themselves been minimized through the years.
"This isn't the NCAA and some school turning somebody in and then having the NCAA take five years to investigate," said Vaccaro, a longtime NCAA critic. "This [investigation] is huge."
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...federal-corruption-investigation-left-stunned
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...50/the-story-how-fbi-brought-words-corruption
The step-by-step process of how the words "corruption" and "fraud" came to college basketball
Assistant coaches from Arizona, Auburn, Louisville, Miami, Oklahoma State and USC were implicated in the investigation, and on Wednesday, Louisville announced that athletic director Tom Jurich and longtime basketball coach Rick Pitino were placed on administrative leave.
Joon H. Kim, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told reporters that the investigation was ongoing. There might be additional arrests and more schools involved.
Court records and sealed complaints released by the U.S. Attorney's office reveal an elaborate, clandestine FBI investigation that involves wiretaps, surveillance video, undercover agents and cooperating witnesses.
Federal prosecutors stunned college basketball by announcing charges for four Division I coaches. Although the charges stem from a three-year investigation, much is still to be determined. Here's what you need to know.
The SEC complaint said Blazer actually pitched the movie project to an athlete as an investment opportunity, but that client "expressly refused to make the investment." Blazer allegedly took $550,000 from the client's account and invested in the film projects. When the client later learned about Blazer's actions and demanded repayment, Blazer then took money out of a different athlete's account to make repayment in "Ponzi-like fashion."
On Aug. 4 of this year, the SEC ordered Blazer to make restitution of $1.8 million and pay a civil penalty of $150,000. The SEC had barred him from the industry in May 2016. As part of a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's office, he agreed to plead guilty to securities fraud, aggravated identity theft, false statements and documents, and two counts of wire fraud, according to a Sept. 19 cooperation agreement.
It wasn't the first time Blazer was investigated by financial regulators. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, an unidentified NFL player filed a complaint against Blazer in March 2011 with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an industry-funded group that regulates financial advisers and the firms where they work.
The football player alleged he lost $4 million because Blazer misappropriated or mismanaged his accounts between 2001 and 2009. Blazer told FINRA investigators that the player was recklessly withdrawing money from his accounts, forcing his firm to sell other assets in order to generate cash. An arbitrator awarded the football player $850,000 in May 2012.
In 2015, Blazer was also linked to an investigation of improper cash payments to University of North Carolina football players. A grand jury indicted former Tar Heels player Christopher Hawkins for violating the state's sports agent law by providing money to a UNC player and illegally contacting another about signing a contract. During the investigation, former UNC player Robert Quinn told state investigators that Hawkins gave him money to steer him to agent Peter Schaffer and Blazer, according to court documents. Kendric Burney, another UNC player, told investigators that Hawkins arranged and attended his meetings with Blazer and Schaffer.
U.S. Department of Justice documents released Tuesday indicate Blazer also was accused of a 14-year-long wire fraud scheme in which he made "payments and loans to NCAA athletes in order to induce those student-athletes to retain the defendant as a financial advisor and/or business manager."
Blazer also agreed to one other condition as part of his plea agreement: he became a cooperating witness for the FBI, providing information which sparked the investigation into the relationship between college basketball coaches, financial advisers, sports agents, marketing officials and apparel company employees in recruiting NBA-bound players.
Sometime during the fall of 2016, a mutual friend introduced Blazer to Rashan Michel, a former NBA and Southeastern Conference referee. After leaving pro basketball in 2001, Michel opened Thompson Bespoke Clothiers in Atlanta, which sold high-end, custom tailored suits. His clients included NFL players such as Todd Gurley, Teddy Bridgewater, Sammy Watkins and Mike Evans, among others. In 2014, he designed the suits worn by the top seven picks in the NFL draft, according to his social media account.
This past spring, former LSU tailback Leonard Fournette and Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson were among the players who wore his suits on the first night of the NFL draft.
Michel, 43, attended Talladega College, an HBCU in Talladega, Alabama, and worked as an NBA referee for four seasons beginning in 1997, league spokesman Tim Frank told ESPN in 2011. At the time, Frank wouldn't say why Michel departed the league. According to data on the website basketball-reference.com, Michel worked 212 NBA games as an official.
In an interview with Stacks Magazine in 2014, Michel said he couldn't find work after leaving pro basketball. He started selling clothes for a clothier in Chicago, then spent six months studying under a master tailor in Canada. He launched Thompson Bespoke Clothiers in 2007, according to state of Georgia records. He had recently moved to Charlotte and planned to open a second store there, according to a post on his Instagram account.
Michel had been in the spotlight before. On March 30, 2011, he confronted former NBA star Dominique Wilkins while Wilkins was wrapping up his broadcasting duties after a Hawks-Magic game in Atlanta. A video of the incident obtained by TMZ, which was taken by a fan with a cellphone, showed a person identified as Wilkins throwing at least two punches at a man in the first row before he was pulled away. After yanking off his tie and tossing aside his suit jacket, the 6-foot-8 Wilkins tried to get back at the man before several people stepped in, pushing him onto the court, according to a 2011 ESPN.com story.
Michel told Atlanta police that Wilkins owed him $12,500 for custom-made suits; Wilkins said he believed the suits were a gift. Michel was charged with two counts of misdemeanor simple battery and suffered a black eye. The charges were later dropped.
Michel called into the "Frank and Wanda Morning Show" on WVEE-FM in Atlanta the next morning to give his side of the story, claiming Wilkins punched him first.
"I went down and said, 'Let's handle this like men, work out a payment plan,'" Michel said. "The next thing I know ... the security guard grabbed me and then [Wilkins] punches me."
In October 2011, Michel sued Wilkins and the Atlanta Spirit, then-owners of the Hawks, and claimed he suffered physical and emotional pain and public humiliation as a result of the incident, in which he said that Wilkins repeatedly punched him without provocation. Michel said he also lost his part-time job as an SEC basketball referee because of the fight. An SEC official told ESPN that Michel's last assignment was a women's nonconference game in December 2010.
After the mutual friend had introduced Michel to Blazer, during a series of phone calls in the fall of 2016, Michel told Blazer that Auburn assistant coach Chuck Person needed money. "In exchange for such money, Person would agree to steer student-athletes to [Auburn's] basketball team to retain [Blazer's] financial advisory and business management services," according to the complaint.
The step-by-step process of how the words "corruption" and "fraud" came to college basketball
Mark SchlabachESPN Senior Writer
Assistant coaches from Arizona, Auburn, Louisville, Miami, Oklahoma State and USC were implicated in the investigation, and on Wednesday, Louisville announced that athletic director Tom Jurich and longtime basketball coach Rick Pitino were placed on administrative leave.
Joon H. Kim, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told reporters that the investigation was ongoing. There might be additional arrests and more schools involved.
Court records and sealed complaints released by the U.S. Attorney's office reveal an elaborate, clandestine FBI investigation that involves wiretaps, surveillance video, undercover agents and cooperating witnesses.
Federal prosecutors stunned college basketball by announcing charges for four Division I coaches. Although the charges stem from a three-year investigation, much is still to be determined. Here's what you need to know.
The SEC complaint said Blazer actually pitched the movie project to an athlete as an investment opportunity, but that client "expressly refused to make the investment." Blazer allegedly took $550,000 from the client's account and invested in the film projects. When the client later learned about Blazer's actions and demanded repayment, Blazer then took money out of a different athlete's account to make repayment in "Ponzi-like fashion."
On Aug. 4 of this year, the SEC ordered Blazer to make restitution of $1.8 million and pay a civil penalty of $150,000. The SEC had barred him from the industry in May 2016. As part of a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's office, he agreed to plead guilty to securities fraud, aggravated identity theft, false statements and documents, and two counts of wire fraud, according to a Sept. 19 cooperation agreement.
It wasn't the first time Blazer was investigated by financial regulators. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, an unidentified NFL player filed a complaint against Blazer in March 2011 with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an industry-funded group that regulates financial advisers and the firms where they work.
The football player alleged he lost $4 million because Blazer misappropriated or mismanaged his accounts between 2001 and 2009. Blazer told FINRA investigators that the player was recklessly withdrawing money from his accounts, forcing his firm to sell other assets in order to generate cash. An arbitrator awarded the football player $850,000 in May 2012.
In 2015, Blazer was also linked to an investigation of improper cash payments to University of North Carolina football players. A grand jury indicted former Tar Heels player Christopher Hawkins for violating the state's sports agent law by providing money to a UNC player and illegally contacting another about signing a contract. During the investigation, former UNC player Robert Quinn told state investigators that Hawkins gave him money to steer him to agent Peter Schaffer and Blazer, according to court documents. Kendric Burney, another UNC player, told investigators that Hawkins arranged and attended his meetings with Blazer and Schaffer.
U.S. Department of Justice documents released Tuesday indicate Blazer also was accused of a 14-year-long wire fraud scheme in which he made "payments and loans to NCAA athletes in order to induce those student-athletes to retain the defendant as a financial advisor and/or business manager."
Blazer also agreed to one other condition as part of his plea agreement: he became a cooperating witness for the FBI, providing information which sparked the investigation into the relationship between college basketball coaches, financial advisers, sports agents, marketing officials and apparel company employees in recruiting NBA-bound players.
Sometime during the fall of 2016, a mutual friend introduced Blazer to Rashan Michel, a former NBA and Southeastern Conference referee. After leaving pro basketball in 2001, Michel opened Thompson Bespoke Clothiers in Atlanta, which sold high-end, custom tailored suits. His clients included NFL players such as Todd Gurley, Teddy Bridgewater, Sammy Watkins and Mike Evans, among others. In 2014, he designed the suits worn by the top seven picks in the NFL draft, according to his social media account.
This past spring, former LSU tailback Leonard Fournette and Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson were among the players who wore his suits on the first night of the NFL draft.
Michel, 43, attended Talladega College, an HBCU in Talladega, Alabama, and worked as an NBA referee for four seasons beginning in 1997, league spokesman Tim Frank told ESPN in 2011. At the time, Frank wouldn't say why Michel departed the league. According to data on the website basketball-reference.com, Michel worked 212 NBA games as an official.
In an interview with Stacks Magazine in 2014, Michel said he couldn't find work after leaving pro basketball. He started selling clothes for a clothier in Chicago, then spent six months studying under a master tailor in Canada. He launched Thompson Bespoke Clothiers in 2007, according to state of Georgia records. He had recently moved to Charlotte and planned to open a second store there, according to a post on his Instagram account.
Michel had been in the spotlight before. On March 30, 2011, he confronted former NBA star Dominique Wilkins while Wilkins was wrapping up his broadcasting duties after a Hawks-Magic game in Atlanta. A video of the incident obtained by TMZ, which was taken by a fan with a cellphone, showed a person identified as Wilkins throwing at least two punches at a man in the first row before he was pulled away. After yanking off his tie and tossing aside his suit jacket, the 6-foot-8 Wilkins tried to get back at the man before several people stepped in, pushing him onto the court, according to a 2011 ESPN.com story.
Michel told Atlanta police that Wilkins owed him $12,500 for custom-made suits; Wilkins said he believed the suits were a gift. Michel was charged with two counts of misdemeanor simple battery and suffered a black eye. The charges were later dropped.
Michel called into the "Frank and Wanda Morning Show" on WVEE-FM in Atlanta the next morning to give his side of the story, claiming Wilkins punched him first.
"I went down and said, 'Let's handle this like men, work out a payment plan,'" Michel said. "The next thing I know ... the security guard grabbed me and then [Wilkins] punches me."
In October 2011, Michel sued Wilkins and the Atlanta Spirit, then-owners of the Hawks, and claimed he suffered physical and emotional pain and public humiliation as a result of the incident, in which he said that Wilkins repeatedly punched him without provocation. Michel said he also lost his part-time job as an SEC basketball referee because of the fight. An SEC official told ESPN that Michel's last assignment was a women's nonconference game in December 2010.
After the mutual friend had introduced Michel to Blazer, during a series of phone calls in the fall of 2016, Michel told Blazer that Auburn assistant coach Chuck Person needed money. "In exchange for such money, Person would agree to steer student-athletes to [Auburn's] basketball team to retain [Blazer's] financial advisory and business management services," according to the complaint.
Person, who is Auburn's all-time leading scorer and helped the Tigers reach three straight NCAA tournaments, was the No. 4 pick of the Indiana Pacers in the 1986 NBA draft. He was the 1987 NBA Rookie of the Year and played for five teams from 1986 to 2000, earning more than $23 million in salary. A former assistant in the NBA and Korea, Person joined head coach Bruce Pearl's staff at Auburn in 2014. He was promoted to associate head coach the next season.
During a telephone call with Blazer on Sept. 8, 2016, according to the complaint, Michel also boasted about being able to connect Blazer with other coaches. "The good thing about it is," Michel said, "I got all the college coaches right now because, guess what, I'm the one that's with them. I make all their suits."
Michel told Blazer that he even had access to team's locker rooms and players.
"The [expletive] basketball guys [get] way more money than these [expletive] football guys," Michel told Blazer. "We can get us [expletive] 10 basketball players in the next five years and we gonna ... have to sit back and do absolutely nothing."
Michel informed Blazer that Person needed a $60,000 loan, and that Auburn was going to have "three or four pros come out a year. [He's] got one or two of them that's gonna be pretty high draft picks." Michel said Person would pay back the money over a 24-month period. During later conversations, Blazer and Michel discussed the loan being forgiven if Person delivered players.
On Nov. 29, Person and Michel met with Blazer at a restaurant near Auburn's campus. Blazer was wearing a video camera and recording device, and FBI agents monitored the meeting, according to the complaint. During the meeting, Person agreed to accept $50,000 in bribe payments from Blazer.
According to the complaint, Michel explained that Person would receive $5,000 in cash that day and then three additional payments of $15,000. Person signed a promissory note, and then asked if he could receive $10,000 up front. Blazer agreed to wire him an additional $5,000. Michel sent Blazer the information needed to wire money to Person's bank account, and the money was transferred the next day.
On Dec. 12, Person, Michel and Blazer met with an unidentified Auburn player at a Manhattan hotel room. The Tigers were in New York to play Boston College in the Under Armour Reunion at Madison Square Garden. The meeting was again videotaped by Blazer, and Blazer told the player that he wanted to "make sure you [have] a face to put with the voice and the name or whatever, so ya know, so when we do get together ... you're good with everything."
The player told Blazer that he was good with whatever arrangement Person was comfortable with. "I trust him 100 percent," the player said. During the Dec. 12 meeting, Blazer gave Person approximately $15,000 in cash.
Person told the player: "The most important thing is that you ... don't say nothing to nobody. ... But don't share with your sisters, don't share with any of the teammates, that's very important cause this is a violation ... of rules, but this is how the NBA players get it done. They get early relationships, and they form partnerships, they form trust."
He also warned the player: "Your personality and the way you do things can't change. Don't flaunt the stuff you get and, you know, don't change the way you speak to people, that's very important, too."
According to a phone call that was intercepted by an FBI wiretap on Dec. 17, Person told the unidentified player's mother that her son "is going to be good enough to go first round. I've talked to a bunch of people ... and I want him to leave to play in the NBA." Person told her that he had a financial adviser he wanted her to work with and that Blazer had worked as his adviser, as well as former Auburn star Charles Barkley's adviser, neither of which was true. Finally, according to the FBI, Person told the player's mother that he wasn't "getting anything" for making the connection.
Person also told the player's mother that Blazer would start giving her $5,000 or so per month, "so that way, you don't have to worry about anything."
On Dec. 18, after the Tigers defeated Mercer 76-74 at home, Blazer met with the player's mother and stepfather at Person's house. Person explained to them how the arrangement would work and explained that they didn't have to sign anything.
"Your word is good enough for him, and your word is good enough for me," Person told them. "When [the player] gets drafted in June then they'll make a formal signing to be a financial adviser. Now, he is not an agent, so he can't do any contracts. So when [the player] starts getting paid, what percentage of money you're going to send to [Blazer] for him to invest is going to be up to you guys. But [the player] should invest a large portion of it, if not all of it, and, uh, you shouldn't work with more than one financial agent."
Blazer indicated he'd pay the player's parents a few thousand dollars a month for the next four months and gave them $1,000 during the initial meeting. Blazer wired $10,000 to Person's bank account on Dec. 27 and an additional $11,500 on Jan. 10, according to the FBI.
During a telephone call with Blazer, Person said he was giving Michel a portion of the bribes, but complained that Michel was trying to "double dip." But that's what Person tried to do when he arranged for an unidentified financial adviser in Alabama to meet with a second unnamed Auburn player. The meeting occurred at Person's house in January, and the FBI believed that he "initially intended for the [advisor] and [Blazer] to jointly represent Player-2, so that Person could receive money from both individuals."
When the second adviser told Person that he didn't want to make the proposed payments, Person advised the second player's mother that she should go with only Blazer. She thanked him for "putting the right people around us."
On Jan. 5, Michel met with Blazer at a restaurant in Atlanta, where he discussed a proposal in which Blazer would pay him on a monthly basis to connect him with other coaches who were willing to accept bribes. Blazer paid Michel tens of thousands of dollars from January 2017 to about September 2017, according to the FBI, and Michel helped facilitate the payment of $25,000 to an unidentified staff member of another school. The staff member received $5,000 during an initial meeting and an additional $20,000 in later meetings in New York and Atlanta.
The FBI said Person received a total of $91,500 from Blazer, and Person claimed to have given approximately $11,000 to the first player's mother and $7,500 to the second player's mother. Michel received $49,000 for arranging the meetings with coaches and player's parents.
Person was arrested Tuesday morning and was released on $25,000 bond. Michel was arrested in Charlotte on Tuesday and appeared in front of U.S. Magistrate Court Judge David Keesler, who ordered him to appear in New York in two weeks.
Auburn officials suspended Person without pay on Tuesday, and the university said it was "saddened, angry and disappointed" by the news. Auburn officials have hired a Birmingham law firm to investigate the allegations.
Auburn president Steven Leath told ESPN that he received a call on Monday night, and was advised that an FBI agent wanted to meet with him the next morning, without any indication of what the meeting was about. Leath said he wasn't worried, because he assumed it had to do with his security clearance related to certain projects and research work on campus - not about athletics.
An FBI agent arrived shortly before 8 a.m. on Tuesday. "They told me that as a result of a long complex investigation, they were going to make arrests and make charges related to NCAA basketball. In fact, they had already arrested one of our assistant coaches earlier that morning," he said.
But the university did get some reassuring news later from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which was that the university itself was not the target of the investigation, Leath said.
"I think it says clearly that they don't think there's some structural problem or some broader problem at the university, that this was an isolated individual," he said. "I don't think anybody else knew. I don't think there's any indication at Auburn that anybody else knew about this."
Leath said coaches have identified the two student athletes referenced in the FBI's investigation but he was not naming them, and he said the school, which has hired an outside law firm to investigate the men's basketball program, will wait for information from that review to determine what further actions, if any, need to be taken.
"It's very disappointing," Leath said. "I think university presidents are always concerned that the tail doesn't wag the dog. And then you see things like this going on under people's noses, and you wonder how it's even possible," he said.
During a telephone call with Blazer on Sept. 8, 2016, according to the complaint, Michel also boasted about being able to connect Blazer with other coaches. "The good thing about it is," Michel said, "I got all the college coaches right now because, guess what, I'm the one that's with them. I make all their suits."
Michel told Blazer that he even had access to team's locker rooms and players.
"The [expletive] basketball guys [get] way more money than these [expletive] football guys," Michel told Blazer. "We can get us [expletive] 10 basketball players in the next five years and we gonna ... have to sit back and do absolutely nothing."
Michel informed Blazer that Person needed a $60,000 loan, and that Auburn was going to have "three or four pros come out a year. [He's] got one or two of them that's gonna be pretty high draft picks." Michel said Person would pay back the money over a 24-month period. During later conversations, Blazer and Michel discussed the loan being forgiven if Person delivered players.
On Nov. 29, Person and Michel met with Blazer at a restaurant near Auburn's campus. Blazer was wearing a video camera and recording device, and FBI agents monitored the meeting, according to the complaint. During the meeting, Person agreed to accept $50,000 in bribe payments from Blazer.
According to the complaint, Michel explained that Person would receive $5,000 in cash that day and then three additional payments of $15,000. Person signed a promissory note, and then asked if he could receive $10,000 up front. Blazer agreed to wire him an additional $5,000. Michel sent Blazer the information needed to wire money to Person's bank account, and the money was transferred the next day.
On Dec. 12, Person, Michel and Blazer met with an unidentified Auburn player at a Manhattan hotel room. The Tigers were in New York to play Boston College in the Under Armour Reunion at Madison Square Garden. The meeting was again videotaped by Blazer, and Blazer told the player that he wanted to "make sure you [have] a face to put with the voice and the name or whatever, so ya know, so when we do get together ... you're good with everything."
The player told Blazer that he was good with whatever arrangement Person was comfortable with. "I trust him 100 percent," the player said. During the Dec. 12 meeting, Blazer gave Person approximately $15,000 in cash.
Person told the player: "The most important thing is that you ... don't say nothing to nobody. ... But don't share with your sisters, don't share with any of the teammates, that's very important cause this is a violation ... of rules, but this is how the NBA players get it done. They get early relationships, and they form partnerships, they form trust."
He also warned the player: "Your personality and the way you do things can't change. Don't flaunt the stuff you get and, you know, don't change the way you speak to people, that's very important, too."
According to a phone call that was intercepted by an FBI wiretap on Dec. 17, Person told the unidentified player's mother that her son "is going to be good enough to go first round. I've talked to a bunch of people ... and I want him to leave to play in the NBA." Person told her that he had a financial adviser he wanted her to work with and that Blazer had worked as his adviser, as well as former Auburn star Charles Barkley's adviser, neither of which was true. Finally, according to the FBI, Person told the player's mother that he wasn't "getting anything" for making the connection.
Person also told the player's mother that Blazer would start giving her $5,000 or so per month, "so that way, you don't have to worry about anything."
On Dec. 18, after the Tigers defeated Mercer 76-74 at home, Blazer met with the player's mother and stepfather at Person's house. Person explained to them how the arrangement would work and explained that they didn't have to sign anything.
"Your word is good enough for him, and your word is good enough for me," Person told them. "When [the player] gets drafted in June then they'll make a formal signing to be a financial adviser. Now, he is not an agent, so he can't do any contracts. So when [the player] starts getting paid, what percentage of money you're going to send to [Blazer] for him to invest is going to be up to you guys. But [the player] should invest a large portion of it, if not all of it, and, uh, you shouldn't work with more than one financial agent."
Blazer indicated he'd pay the player's parents a few thousand dollars a month for the next four months and gave them $1,000 during the initial meeting. Blazer wired $10,000 to Person's bank account on Dec. 27 and an additional $11,500 on Jan. 10, according to the FBI.
During a telephone call with Blazer, Person said he was giving Michel a portion of the bribes, but complained that Michel was trying to "double dip." But that's what Person tried to do when he arranged for an unidentified financial adviser in Alabama to meet with a second unnamed Auburn player. The meeting occurred at Person's house in January, and the FBI believed that he "initially intended for the [advisor] and [Blazer] to jointly represent Player-2, so that Person could receive money from both individuals."
When the second adviser told Person that he didn't want to make the proposed payments, Person advised the second player's mother that she should go with only Blazer. She thanked him for "putting the right people around us."
On Jan. 5, Michel met with Blazer at a restaurant in Atlanta, where he discussed a proposal in which Blazer would pay him on a monthly basis to connect him with other coaches who were willing to accept bribes. Blazer paid Michel tens of thousands of dollars from January 2017 to about September 2017, according to the FBI, and Michel helped facilitate the payment of $25,000 to an unidentified staff member of another school. The staff member received $5,000 during an initial meeting and an additional $20,000 in later meetings in New York and Atlanta.
The FBI said Person received a total of $91,500 from Blazer, and Person claimed to have given approximately $11,000 to the first player's mother and $7,500 to the second player's mother. Michel received $49,000 for arranging the meetings with coaches and player's parents.
Person was arrested Tuesday morning and was released on $25,000 bond. Michel was arrested in Charlotte on Tuesday and appeared in front of U.S. Magistrate Court Judge David Keesler, who ordered him to appear in New York in two weeks.
Auburn officials suspended Person without pay on Tuesday, and the university said it was "saddened, angry and disappointed" by the news. Auburn officials have hired a Birmingham law firm to investigate the allegations.
Auburn president Steven Leath told ESPN that he received a call on Monday night, and was advised that an FBI agent wanted to meet with him the next morning, without any indication of what the meeting was about. Leath said he wasn't worried, because he assumed it had to do with his security clearance related to certain projects and research work on campus - not about athletics.
An FBI agent arrived shortly before 8 a.m. on Tuesday. "They told me that as a result of a long complex investigation, they were going to make arrests and make charges related to NCAA basketball. In fact, they had already arrested one of our assistant coaches earlier that morning," he said.
But the university did get some reassuring news later from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which was that the university itself was not the target of the investigation, Leath said.
"I think it says clearly that they don't think there's some structural problem or some broader problem at the university, that this was an isolated individual," he said. "I don't think anybody else knew. I don't think there's any indication at Auburn that anybody else knew about this."
Leath said coaches have identified the two student athletes referenced in the FBI's investigation but he was not naming them, and he said the school, which has hired an outside law firm to investigate the men's basketball program, will wait for information from that review to determine what further actions, if any, need to be taken.
"It's very disappointing," Leath said. "I think university presidents are always concerned that the tail doesn't wag the dog. And then you see things like this going on under people's noses, and you wonder how it's even possible," he said.
... then the sneaker company
The FBI didn't just target college basketball coaches. It went after a high-level apparel executive.
On June 15, the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions announced that it was suspending Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino for five games this season, and ordering the Cardinals to vacate all records from December 2010 to June 2014 as a result of an investigation into the program's high-profile escort scandal. According to Louisville, it would have to forfeit 108 regular-season wins and 15 NCAA tournament victories, including the 2013 national title.
The NCAA accused Pitino, one of the sport's most successful coaches, of failing to monitor former staff member Andre McGee, who allegedly arranged for strip dances or sex acts for three players, 15 recruits and two coaches who were not affiliated with the school at a Louisville dormitory. At the time, Pitino said he was unaware McGee was hosting the parties in the dorm.
"None of us do not feel extreme remorse, regret in everything that went on inside that dormitory," Pitino said at a news conference when the NCAA penalties were announced. "We've said that many, many times. But this is over the top. It's to the point where it's not even conceivable, what I just read.
"We are embarrassed about what went on. We're extremely contrite about what went on," he said. "But one person does not determine the worth of what we're about as a program."
On July 10, less than a month after the NCAA penalties were announced and about a month before the university appealed what it called "draconian" sanctions, an unidentified Louisville assistant coach spoke on the telephone with Merl Code, a former Clemson basketball player and Adidas employee; Munish Sood, a financial adviser from Princeton, New Jersey; and an undercover agent, who was recording the call for the FBI. The men discussed how they were going to mask an initial $25,000 payment from Adidas to the father of a high school player who had recently committed to Louisville.
According to the FBI complaint, James "Jim" Gatto, Adidas' head of global sports marketing who had worked at the company for 24 years, and Christian Dawkins, formerly an agent for ASM Sports who was recently fired for racking up $42,000 in Uber charges on an unnamed NBA player's credit card, and the others had previously agreed to funnel $100,000 to the recruit's father in four payments. Dawkins told the others he was paying the player's father at the request of a Louisville coach.
The player, identified as "Player-10" and described as a top recruit in the complaint, is believed to be Brian Bowen, a five-star guard/forward from LaPorte, Indiana, who committed to Louisville on June 5. The FBI said telephone records show Gatto spoke directly with the unnamed Louisville coach multiple times in the days before the player publicly committed to play for the Cardinals.
During the July 10 call, the FBI alleges the men discussed a plan in which the undercover agent and Sood would front the money for the first $25,000 payment because it was going to be difficult to mask the payments through Adidas' accounts payable system. Dawkins assured Sood and the undercover agent that they'd eventually be reimbursed by Adidas. Dawkins told them they were paying the player's family so the player would sign with Dawkins and his fledgling agency, as well as an endorsement deal with Adidas, when he turned pro.
Code, who was Clemson's point guard from 1993 to 1997 and until recently had worked as the director of rival Nike's elite youth basketball program, explained why Adidas was paying the player.
"You guys are being introduced to ... how stuff happens with kids and getting into particular schools," Code said during the call. "So this is kind of one of those instances where we needed to step up and help one of our flagship schools in [Louisville], you know, secure a five-star caliber kid. Obviously that helps, you know, our potential business."
Code further explained that by funneling the payments to players' families through third parties, Adidas "was not engaging in a monetary relationship with an amateur athlete. We're engaging in a monetary relationship with a business manager, and whatever he decides to do with it, that's between him and the family. ... We can't get involved directly in those kinds of situations and scenarios."
On July 11, the undercover agent went to Sood's office, where he provided him with $25,000 in cash for the player's father, who was flying to New York to receive it. The FBI said Dawkins called the player's father on July 13 and told him that Sood had $19,500 for him, and that Dawkins would take care of "everything else." The next day, Sood confirmed to Dawkins that he'd delivered the money.
After Gatto and Code had problems in obtaining the rest of the money from Adidas, Dawkins arranged a meeting with Jonathan Brad Augustine, president of The League Initiative and program director of the Adidas-sponsored 1 Family AAU program in Florida, at a hotel room in Las Vegas on July 27. The undercover agent, the Louisville assistant and Blazer, the disgraced former financial planner, also were there. Prior to the meeting, the FBI placed video cameras inside the room and recorded the meeting.
During the meeting, Dawkins laid out plans to funnel money to the family of a second player, who was scheduled to graduate from high school in 2019. "The mom is like, 'We need our [expletive] money,'" Dawkins said. "So we got to be able to fund the situation ... We're all working together to get this kid to [Louisville]. Obviously, in turn, the kid will come back to us."
When Dawkins mentioned they'd have to be careful because the Cardinals were already on NCAA probation, the Louisville assistant agreed. "We gotta be very low key," he said.
The men agreed to funnel the money through Augustine's program, and he promised them that "all my kids will be [Adidas] kids." The undercover agent then handed Augustine an envelope containing $12,700 in cash, according to the FBI, and Dawkins told him that it would cover payments to the second player's family for July and August.
Augustine told the group that he expected Adidas to cover the payments because "no one swings a bigger [expletive] than [an unidentified Louisville coach]" at Adidas, and all the coach had to do "is pick up the phone and call somebody [and say], 'These are my guys, they're taking care of us.'"
After the Louisville assistant left the hotel room, Dawkins and the others discussed the payment plan to the first recruit's family. He said that even though Adidas had agreed to pay him $100,000, a rival athletic apparel company was "coming with a higher number," and he needed to get more money from Adidas to secure the player's commitment to Louisville. Dawkins said he'd spoken to the second unnamed Louisville coach and told him, "I need you to call Jim Gatto, who's the head of everything" at Adidas' basketball program.
After ASM Sports fired Dawkins for improperly using the NBA player's credit card, he was introduced to a second undercover agent, who would be involved in helping him set up a new sports management company. The undercover agent who initially worked with Dawkins told him that he was travelling out of the country for the next month, but that Blazer and the second undercover agent would be available to meet with coaches and/or players in his absence.
On June 6, Dawkins, Sood, Blazer and an undercover agent met on a boat docked off Manhattan, where they signed a shareholder agreement that had been drafted by Soot to establish the terms of the financing and ownership of Dawkins' new company. Under the agreement, Sood and the undercover agent agreed to provide Dawkins with $200,000 annually, in four quarterly payments. Dawkins said he'd use half the money for his salary and half the money for travel and expenses. He told the men they probably needed another $100,000 in a separate account to pay bribes to coaches.
"If we take care of everybody and everything is done, we control everything," Dawkins boasted to an undercover agent. "You can make millions off of one kid."
By then, the men were already making monthly payments to Oklahoma State assistant Lamont Evans, who the FBI says accepted at least $22,000 in bribes to steer his players toward Sood and Dawkins. Their relationship started when Evans was coaching at South Carolina, but he left to join the Cowboys because it was "better players, more, more, more business." The FBI alleges they also paid $20,000 in bribes to Arizona assistant Emmanuel "Book" Richardson, whom Dawkins introduced to Sood at a tournament in Las Vegas in March, and $13,000 to USC assistant Tony Bland.
On Aug. 16, during a telephone call with the second undercover agent, which was recorded by the FBI, Dawkins said that he had been reimbursed for the first $25,000 payment to the first player's family, which was transferred to his "Loyd, Inc." account. In the complaint, the FBI said bank records confirmed a $25,000 deposit on Aug. 1. The check Dawkins deposited was issued from a bank account belonging to an AAU program that was sponsored by Adidas. On the same day, the AAU program's bank account received a $30,000 deposit from an account associated with Adidas, according to the FBI.
The FBI didn't just target college basketball coaches. It went after a high-level apparel executive.
On June 15, the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions announced that it was suspending Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino for five games this season, and ordering the Cardinals to vacate all records from December 2010 to June 2014 as a result of an investigation into the program's high-profile escort scandal. According to Louisville, it would have to forfeit 108 regular-season wins and 15 NCAA tournament victories, including the 2013 national title.
The NCAA accused Pitino, one of the sport's most successful coaches, of failing to monitor former staff member Andre McGee, who allegedly arranged for strip dances or sex acts for three players, 15 recruits and two coaches who were not affiliated with the school at a Louisville dormitory. At the time, Pitino said he was unaware McGee was hosting the parties in the dorm.
"None of us do not feel extreme remorse, regret in everything that went on inside that dormitory," Pitino said at a news conference when the NCAA penalties were announced. "We've said that many, many times. But this is over the top. It's to the point where it's not even conceivable, what I just read.
"We are embarrassed about what went on. We're extremely contrite about what went on," he said. "But one person does not determine the worth of what we're about as a program."
On July 10, less than a month after the NCAA penalties were announced and about a month before the university appealed what it called "draconian" sanctions, an unidentified Louisville assistant coach spoke on the telephone with Merl Code, a former Clemson basketball player and Adidas employee; Munish Sood, a financial adviser from Princeton, New Jersey; and an undercover agent, who was recording the call for the FBI. The men discussed how they were going to mask an initial $25,000 payment from Adidas to the father of a high school player who had recently committed to Louisville.
According to the FBI complaint, James "Jim" Gatto, Adidas' head of global sports marketing who had worked at the company for 24 years, and Christian Dawkins, formerly an agent for ASM Sports who was recently fired for racking up $42,000 in Uber charges on an unnamed NBA player's credit card, and the others had previously agreed to funnel $100,000 to the recruit's father in four payments. Dawkins told the others he was paying the player's father at the request of a Louisville coach.
The player, identified as "Player-10" and described as a top recruit in the complaint, is believed to be Brian Bowen, a five-star guard/forward from LaPorte, Indiana, who committed to Louisville on June 5. The FBI said telephone records show Gatto spoke directly with the unnamed Louisville coach multiple times in the days before the player publicly committed to play for the Cardinals.
During the July 10 call, the FBI alleges the men discussed a plan in which the undercover agent and Sood would front the money for the first $25,000 payment because it was going to be difficult to mask the payments through Adidas' accounts payable system. Dawkins assured Sood and the undercover agent that they'd eventually be reimbursed by Adidas. Dawkins told them they were paying the player's family so the player would sign with Dawkins and his fledgling agency, as well as an endorsement deal with Adidas, when he turned pro.
Code, who was Clemson's point guard from 1993 to 1997 and until recently had worked as the director of rival Nike's elite youth basketball program, explained why Adidas was paying the player.
"You guys are being introduced to ... how stuff happens with kids and getting into particular schools," Code said during the call. "So this is kind of one of those instances where we needed to step up and help one of our flagship schools in [Louisville], you know, secure a five-star caliber kid. Obviously that helps, you know, our potential business."
Code further explained that by funneling the payments to players' families through third parties, Adidas "was not engaging in a monetary relationship with an amateur athlete. We're engaging in a monetary relationship with a business manager, and whatever he decides to do with it, that's between him and the family. ... We can't get involved directly in those kinds of situations and scenarios."
On July 11, the undercover agent went to Sood's office, where he provided him with $25,000 in cash for the player's father, who was flying to New York to receive it. The FBI said Dawkins called the player's father on July 13 and told him that Sood had $19,500 for him, and that Dawkins would take care of "everything else." The next day, Sood confirmed to Dawkins that he'd delivered the money.
After Gatto and Code had problems in obtaining the rest of the money from Adidas, Dawkins arranged a meeting with Jonathan Brad Augustine, president of The League Initiative and program director of the Adidas-sponsored 1 Family AAU program in Florida, at a hotel room in Las Vegas on July 27. The undercover agent, the Louisville assistant and Blazer, the disgraced former financial planner, also were there. Prior to the meeting, the FBI placed video cameras inside the room and recorded the meeting.
During the meeting, Dawkins laid out plans to funnel money to the family of a second player, who was scheduled to graduate from high school in 2019. "The mom is like, 'We need our [expletive] money,'" Dawkins said. "So we got to be able to fund the situation ... We're all working together to get this kid to [Louisville]. Obviously, in turn, the kid will come back to us."
When Dawkins mentioned they'd have to be careful because the Cardinals were already on NCAA probation, the Louisville assistant agreed. "We gotta be very low key," he said.
The men agreed to funnel the money through Augustine's program, and he promised them that "all my kids will be [Adidas] kids." The undercover agent then handed Augustine an envelope containing $12,700 in cash, according to the FBI, and Dawkins told him that it would cover payments to the second player's family for July and August.
Augustine told the group that he expected Adidas to cover the payments because "no one swings a bigger [expletive] than [an unidentified Louisville coach]" at Adidas, and all the coach had to do "is pick up the phone and call somebody [and say], 'These are my guys, they're taking care of us.'"
After the Louisville assistant left the hotel room, Dawkins and the others discussed the payment plan to the first recruit's family. He said that even though Adidas had agreed to pay him $100,000, a rival athletic apparel company was "coming with a higher number," and he needed to get more money from Adidas to secure the player's commitment to Louisville. Dawkins said he'd spoken to the second unnamed Louisville coach and told him, "I need you to call Jim Gatto, who's the head of everything" at Adidas' basketball program.
After ASM Sports fired Dawkins for improperly using the NBA player's credit card, he was introduced to a second undercover agent, who would be involved in helping him set up a new sports management company. The undercover agent who initially worked with Dawkins told him that he was travelling out of the country for the next month, but that Blazer and the second undercover agent would be available to meet with coaches and/or players in his absence.
On June 6, Dawkins, Sood, Blazer and an undercover agent met on a boat docked off Manhattan, where they signed a shareholder agreement that had been drafted by Soot to establish the terms of the financing and ownership of Dawkins' new company. Under the agreement, Sood and the undercover agent agreed to provide Dawkins with $200,000 annually, in four quarterly payments. Dawkins said he'd use half the money for his salary and half the money for travel and expenses. He told the men they probably needed another $100,000 in a separate account to pay bribes to coaches.
"If we take care of everybody and everything is done, we control everything," Dawkins boasted to an undercover agent. "You can make millions off of one kid."
By then, the men were already making monthly payments to Oklahoma State assistant Lamont Evans, who the FBI says accepted at least $22,000 in bribes to steer his players toward Sood and Dawkins. Their relationship started when Evans was coaching at South Carolina, but he left to join the Cowboys because it was "better players, more, more, more business." The FBI alleges they also paid $20,000 in bribes to Arizona assistant Emmanuel "Book" Richardson, whom Dawkins introduced to Sood at a tournament in Las Vegas in March, and $13,000 to USC assistant Tony Bland.
On Aug. 16, during a telephone call with the second undercover agent, which was recorded by the FBI, Dawkins said that he had been reimbursed for the first $25,000 payment to the first player's family, which was transferred to his "Loyd, Inc." account. In the complaint, the FBI said bank records confirmed a $25,000 deposit on Aug. 1. The check Dawkins deposited was issued from a bank account belonging to an AAU program that was sponsored by Adidas. On the same day, the AAU program's bank account received a $30,000 deposit from an account associated with Adidas, according to the FBI.
Dawkins explained to the second undercover agent that they still had to figure out how to get $2,000 monthly payments to the first player's father, and that Louisville would need to get $5,000 to Augustine by Aug. 25 so he could pass it on to the second player's family.
Dawkins explained that Augustine was an important part of the scheme because he runs a "big-time AAU grassroots program" and had two kids who might be "one and dones." He said Augustine had two more players who were ranked in the top 10 in the country for their respective graduating classes. "Everything that can be put into his nonprofit is a write off, obviously, a tax deduction," Dawkins told the second undercover agent. "[So] it's not just like a normal payment to a player" and could "be of benefit to everybody across the board."
Dawkins told the agent he was in the process of drafting agreements for the parents they were already paying. "Obviously, we have to put funding out, and obviously some of it can't be completely accounted for on paper because some of it is, whatever you want to call it, illegal," he said.
On Aug. 23, the second undercover agent met with Sood in New York and provided him with $20,000, according to the complaint. Sood was supposed to send $5,000 to Augustine so he could begin making monthly payments to the father of the first player.
Two days later, Louisville announced that it had agreed to a 10-year, $160 million extension with Adidas, one of the richest apparel contracts in collegiate sports history. It was $7 million more than what any other ACC program was being paid annually, and only Ohio State, Texas and UCLA had more lucrative apparel deals. When UCLA left Adidas for Under Armour in 2016, the Cardinals became Adidas' flagship school in college athletics.
The school announced the deal during a pep rally for administrators, coaches, staff members and student-athletes in the academic center at Papa John's Stadium.
"[It's] an unprecedented deal from our university's standpoint and an unprecedented deal for Adidas," athletics director Tom Jurich told the crowd.
With Louisville and its recruits apparently secured, Gatto, Code, Dawkins and Augustine moved on to more pressing concerns -- a second plan to land a recruit they'd been simultaneously scheming. According to the FBI, they conspired to funnel approximately $150,000 to an unidentified player who was being recruited by the University of Miami. They planned to follow a similar scheme to the one used with the Louisville recruits to keep the player from signing with a school sponsored by a rival apparel company, which they claimed had offered the player $150,000, according to the complaint.
During calls that were intercepted by FBI wiretaps, Gatto asked Code if the payments could be pushed to 2018 because he wasn't sure he could make it work. "I just don't know if I can do anything in '17, that's what I'm saying," Gatto told him. Gatto then asked Code if the player being recruited by Miami might accept $100,000, which is what they paid Louisville's recruit. Code said he wasn't sure if his family would take that much less, but he'd try to reduce their offer by $25,000. Code warned Gatto if they waited until January 2018, the recruit's asking price might be $200,000.
On Aug. 19, Code informed Augustine that Adidas was willing to do what was necessary to help the Hurricanes secure the recruit, but "everything was kind of strapped for '17. So '18 puts us in a better place to have this conversation."
On Tuesday, interim Louisville president Gregory Postel confirmed the university had received notice that it is included in the federal investigation. "While we are just learning about this information, this is a serious concern that goes to the heart of our athletic department and the university," Postel said. "UofL is committed to ethical behavior and adherence to NCAA rules; any violations will not be tolerated."
In a separate statement, Pitino said he was unaware that one of his assistant coaches was involved in the scheme.
"These allegations come as a complete shock to me," Pitino said. "If true, I agree with the U.S. Attorneys Office that these third-party schemes, initiated by a few bad actors, operated to commit a fraud on the impacted universities and their basketball programs, including the University of Louisville. Our fans and supporters deserve better and I am committed to taking whatever steps are needed to ensure those responsible are held accountable."
Dawkins explained that Augustine was an important part of the scheme because he runs a "big-time AAU grassroots program" and had two kids who might be "one and dones." He said Augustine had two more players who were ranked in the top 10 in the country for their respective graduating classes. "Everything that can be put into his nonprofit is a write off, obviously, a tax deduction," Dawkins told the second undercover agent. "[So] it's not just like a normal payment to a player" and could "be of benefit to everybody across the board."
Dawkins told the agent he was in the process of drafting agreements for the parents they were already paying. "Obviously, we have to put funding out, and obviously some of it can't be completely accounted for on paper because some of it is, whatever you want to call it, illegal," he said.
On Aug. 23, the second undercover agent met with Sood in New York and provided him with $20,000, according to the complaint. Sood was supposed to send $5,000 to Augustine so he could begin making monthly payments to the father of the first player.
Two days later, Louisville announced that it had agreed to a 10-year, $160 million extension with Adidas, one of the richest apparel contracts in collegiate sports history. It was $7 million more than what any other ACC program was being paid annually, and only Ohio State, Texas and UCLA had more lucrative apparel deals. When UCLA left Adidas for Under Armour in 2016, the Cardinals became Adidas' flagship school in college athletics.
The school announced the deal during a pep rally for administrators, coaches, staff members and student-athletes in the academic center at Papa John's Stadium.
"[It's] an unprecedented deal from our university's standpoint and an unprecedented deal for Adidas," athletics director Tom Jurich told the crowd.
With Louisville and its recruits apparently secured, Gatto, Code, Dawkins and Augustine moved on to more pressing concerns -- a second plan to land a recruit they'd been simultaneously scheming. According to the FBI, they conspired to funnel approximately $150,000 to an unidentified player who was being recruited by the University of Miami. They planned to follow a similar scheme to the one used with the Louisville recruits to keep the player from signing with a school sponsored by a rival apparel company, which they claimed had offered the player $150,000, according to the complaint.
During calls that were intercepted by FBI wiretaps, Gatto asked Code if the payments could be pushed to 2018 because he wasn't sure he could make it work. "I just don't know if I can do anything in '17, that's what I'm saying," Gatto told him. Gatto then asked Code if the player being recruited by Miami might accept $100,000, which is what they paid Louisville's recruit. Code said he wasn't sure if his family would take that much less, but he'd try to reduce their offer by $25,000. Code warned Gatto if they waited until January 2018, the recruit's asking price might be $200,000.
On Aug. 19, Code informed Augustine that Adidas was willing to do what was necessary to help the Hurricanes secure the recruit, but "everything was kind of strapped for '17. So '18 puts us in a better place to have this conversation."
On Tuesday, interim Louisville president Gregory Postel confirmed the university had received notice that it is included in the federal investigation. "While we are just learning about this information, this is a serious concern that goes to the heart of our athletic department and the university," Postel said. "UofL is committed to ethical behavior and adherence to NCAA rules; any violations will not be tolerated."
In a separate statement, Pitino said he was unaware that one of his assistant coaches was involved in the scheme.
"These allegations come as a complete shock to me," Pitino said. "If true, I agree with the U.S. Attorneys Office that these third-party schemes, initiated by a few bad actors, operated to commit a fraud on the impacted universities and their basketball programs, including the University of Louisville. Our fans and supporters deserve better and I am committed to taking whatever steps are needed to ensure those responsible are held accountable."
No, USC assistant Lamont Evans apparently being investigated for issues when he was at South Carolina - not sure if while at USC also. Issues may stem from recruitment of players that led to Carolina's Final Four. Twitter South Carolina and Evans and you get the latest. Evans long-time assistant of Frank Martin.
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Live look at Boeheim, Calipari and Coach K...
That was a great piece by Mike Vaccaro in the Post. In the 50s scandal, the bad influencer was the Garden and the corruption in NYC from gambling interests. Here it is the sneaker companies. The difference is the schools are complicit today. Adidas is publicly traded. Nike too. My guess is the SEC will step in after the DOJ & Co. Has done all the heavy lifting. There is a foreign corruption stature that forbids bribery in other countries by US companies. I'm neither a lawyer nor a stockpicker, though I covered markets, but I could see the SEC finding a way to wet its beak a bit with some fines and joining the party. This continuing drama could be a big black eye for the game if this drags out the entire season. Could it impact TV Ratings? We'll see.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act deals with bribes to foreign government officials by US corporations not bribes from one corporation to another. However there is the ability to bring an action if a US publicly held corporation uses bribes to obtain business if their books and records do not accurately reflect the true nature of the transaction and their required quarterly and annual report filed with the SEC contain false and misleading information about the true nature of payments made to others .
As an interesting aside, Craig Mordock is a 1993 graduate of Seton Hall.
OK, so here is my question: Who are the Feds ultimately out to get? Like when they pick up a small time drug dealer, they are looking for him to flip on the big time distributor. Who is it here they want to actually get? The head coaches, the shoe company guys? Not sure what the overall play is here.
There were posts on this site that listed South Carolina by name as one of the original four teams being investigated.
I understand the connection with the assistant. But there was confusion stemming from the initials USC.
Thank you. As you know, the SEC can be pretty creative when it wants to be. Bribery, at whatever amount and so public as this one, would be hard to ignore. My guess is there would be some kind of action, however big or small.
A
anon_4htvdezyfe7k9
Guest
I always found it curious how these coaches who never seemed to have anyone's interests but their own in mind always aggressively pushed for their kids to enter the NBA draft early. I always figured it was just a way to sell their programs to future recruits with NBA aspirations, but that ESPN article sheds light on the fact that it was probably in large part just to keep the $ pipeline flowing.
It's hard to follow everything on the board but this was discussed in length in another thread.
https://setonhall.forums.rivals.com...er-nba-players-has-his-computer-seized.30192/
Apparently, his agent is as dirty as they come (per ESPN) and was one of the people arrested.
https://setonhall.forums.rivals.com...er-nba-players-has-his-computer-seized.30192/
Apparently, his agent is as dirty as they come (per ESPN) and was one of the people arrested.
Meet the con man who brought college basketball to its knees
By Associated Press
September 28, 2017 | 11:12am
A con man named Louis Martin “Marty” Blazer III may have failed in his scheme to make low-budget movies with money swiped from pro athletes, but he has now succeeded in stealing part of the spotlight in a scandal that has shaken college basketball to its core.
Federal authorities revealed this week that Blazer was the wily informant — referred to in criminal complaints only as CW-1 “cooperating witness-1” — who played a central role in a federal bribery investigation of assistant coaches at four top-tier basketball schools.
“I’m aware of people who are willing to do this,” federal prosecutors say Blazer told authorities in 2014 when he agreed to wear a wire and buddy up to coaches who took covert payments in exchange for encouraging top-flight NBA prospects to choose a particular school, agent or financial adviser.
Blazer, 46, posed as an experienced — and corrupt — financial adviser and business manager while helping the FBI make hundreds of recordings — a ruse resulting in a case charging 10 people, including coaches from Auburn, Southern California, Arizona and Oklahoma State.
The expanding ramifications of the probe were felt Wednesday when Louisville announced it was putting basketball coach Rick Pitino on unpaid leave in response to a related scheme alleging agents promised the family of a Louisville prospect it would get $100,000 from Adidas if he signed with the Adidas-sponsored school.
SEE ALSO
Rick Pitino wanted it all — and it cost him everything
Authorities have declined to discuss their arrangement with Blazer in detail. And there was no immediate response to messages left on Wednesday seeking comment from his lawyer.
But a guilty plea to securities fraud and other charges that could buy him leniency shows that his cooperation played off of a pattern of deception dating to 2000, when prosecutors say he began paying college athletes to get them to retain his company as a financial adviser or business manager.
In that case, Blazer expanded his fraudulent portfolio using a Pittsburgh-based firm, Blazer Capital, which he billed as a “concierge” financial advisory firm that catered to the needs of the professional athletes, entertainers and other rich people, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Instead of helping them, he repeatedly dipped into his client’s accounts between October 2010 and January 2013 to fund movies and other ventures.
An SEC lawsuit accused Blazer of bilking five clients of $2.35 million, in part to invest in two films: “Mafia the Movie” and “A Resurrection,” a horror movie that was filmed in Pittsburgh and released in 2013. Authorities said Blazer took an interest in the movies after meeting an actor and producer in 2009.
'This is real. This is the FBI': College hoops won't be the same
After switching sides, Blazer’s work as a cooperator in the basketball case included recording and videotaping a meeting with former NBA star and Auburn assistant Chuck Person and others in late 2016 at a restaurant near the university in which Person agreed to accept $50,000 in bribes to steer college athletes to his firm, court papers said. The documents describe how a few weeks later, the pair exchanged chummy text messages about whether Person was being wired $5,000 or $10,000 as an installment.
“I thought it was 10. I guess 5 will do,” Person said.
“Nah 5 + the 5 from yesterday right!” the cooperator reassured him. “No prob!”
As the payments from Blazer rolled in, Person bragged in a recorded exchange about how their illicit deal was a win-win, according to the papers.
“I got some great great, I mean great great ball players,” the coach said. “I’d like to get these players to you and then, if I can supplement myself, that’ll be good for both of us.”
By Associated Press
September 28, 2017 | 11:12am
A con man named Louis Martin “Marty” Blazer III may have failed in his scheme to make low-budget movies with money swiped from pro athletes, but he has now succeeded in stealing part of the spotlight in a scandal that has shaken college basketball to its core.
Federal authorities revealed this week that Blazer was the wily informant — referred to in criminal complaints only as CW-1 “cooperating witness-1” — who played a central role in a federal bribery investigation of assistant coaches at four top-tier basketball schools.
“I’m aware of people who are willing to do this,” federal prosecutors say Blazer told authorities in 2014 when he agreed to wear a wire and buddy up to coaches who took covert payments in exchange for encouraging top-flight NBA prospects to choose a particular school, agent or financial adviser.
Blazer, 46, posed as an experienced — and corrupt — financial adviser and business manager while helping the FBI make hundreds of recordings — a ruse resulting in a case charging 10 people, including coaches from Auburn, Southern California, Arizona and Oklahoma State.
The expanding ramifications of the probe were felt Wednesday when Louisville announced it was putting basketball coach Rick Pitino on unpaid leave in response to a related scheme alleging agents promised the family of a Louisville prospect it would get $100,000 from Adidas if he signed with the Adidas-sponsored school.
SEE ALSO
Rick Pitino wanted it all — and it cost him everything
Authorities have declined to discuss their arrangement with Blazer in detail. And there was no immediate response to messages left on Wednesday seeking comment from his lawyer.
But a guilty plea to securities fraud and other charges that could buy him leniency shows that his cooperation played off of a pattern of deception dating to 2000, when prosecutors say he began paying college athletes to get them to retain his company as a financial adviser or business manager.
In that case, Blazer expanded his fraudulent portfolio using a Pittsburgh-based firm, Blazer Capital, which he billed as a “concierge” financial advisory firm that catered to the needs of the professional athletes, entertainers and other rich people, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Instead of helping them, he repeatedly dipped into his client’s accounts between October 2010 and January 2013 to fund movies and other ventures.
An SEC lawsuit accused Blazer of bilking five clients of $2.35 million, in part to invest in two films: “Mafia the Movie” and “A Resurrection,” a horror movie that was filmed in Pittsburgh and released in 2013. Authorities said Blazer took an interest in the movies after meeting an actor and producer in 2009.
'This is real. This is the FBI': College hoops won't be the same
After switching sides, Blazer’s work as a cooperator in the basketball case included recording and videotaping a meeting with former NBA star and Auburn assistant Chuck Person and others in late 2016 at a restaurant near the university in which Person agreed to accept $50,000 in bribes to steer college athletes to his firm, court papers said. The documents describe how a few weeks later, the pair exchanged chummy text messages about whether Person was being wired $5,000 or $10,000 as an installment.
“I thought it was 10. I guess 5 will do,” Person said.
“Nah 5 + the 5 from yesterday right!” the cooperator reassured him. “No prob!”
As the payments from Blazer rolled in, Person bragged in a recorded exchange about how their illicit deal was a win-win, according to the papers.
“I got some great great, I mean great great ball players,” the coach said. “I’d like to get these players to you and then, if I can supplement myself, that’ll be good for both of us.”
Sonny Vaccaro sees ‘human opportunity’ in NCAA hoops scandal
By Zach Braziller
September 28, 2017 | 7:34pm
One man believes the timing is right. Now is when major changes to the entire collegiate athletic system should be — and need to be — discussed.
The wide-ranging bribery scandal that led to 10 arrests, the likely end of Louisville coach Rick Pitino’s Hall of Fame coaching career and several prominent schools finding themselves in major trouble, demands it.
The accusations that college coaches were working with agents, sneaker company executives from Adidas and financial advisors to steer players to their schools in exchange for large sums of cash, and accepting handouts to push those players back to the professional moneymakers when turning pro, warrants it. The scandal is a gruesome black eye for the NCAA and covers much of the sport of college basketball.
“This is an opportunity for the NCAA to become human,” Sonny Vaccaro, the former Adidas, Reebok and Nike executive who signed schools to lucrative sneaker contracts and once ran grassroots basketball, said in a phone interview. “Do the right thing. Allow these kids to share in the revenues. This is their opportunity.”
Vaccaro is credited with starting the commercialization of the sport in the first place by giving out sneaker contracts to coaches he knew back in 1977. He understands the counter-argument to paying college athletes — that premier players will always be in demand, and therefore would likely command more benefits than their contemporaries. There would still be under-the-table deals, still be agents and sneaker companies working with college coaches for their own benefit.
His idea would be for the NCAA to install a separate entity that could accurately value what a student-athlete is worth, based on production and performance, how much money the respective program is bringing to the university. Allow the athletes to receive endorsements deals or make money off the likeness of their autograph or uniform. Offer a stipend. Give royalties. Any kind of compensation, he believes, would be an important first step.
College basketball bribery scandal: Who falls next?
Vaccaro wasn’t trying to excuse what went on. He described the accusations as “repulsive,” and said Adidas director of global marketing James Gatto, whom he hired at Adidas years ago and was one of the 10 people arrested on bribery and fraud charges, should be ashamed of his actions.
“I’m not only surprised, I’m disappointed,” Vaccaro said. “It’s not the young person I remember. It’s sad. I went to his wedding when I was still working. I’m sad that anybody gets caught up in these things.”
But everything that took place happened because of the marketplace, because the only compensation student athletes receive to make millions of dollars for their university is a scholarship paying for their education.
“The biggest culprit in this, and you’re going to laugh at me, is the NCAA,” Vaccaro said. “The NCAA itself has this fraudulent thing that the public has gullibly swallowed, the courts have swallowed, called amateurism. The [five-star prospect] is no different than the young man signing with the Knicks or Nets. They’re professional at this level.
“[The NCAA] lives in an archaic self-serving world. They’ll never recognize how the athletes are being used. All these entities [in this scandal] are tied to one thing, the players getting recruited.”
By Zach Braziller
September 28, 2017 | 7:34pm
One man believes the timing is right. Now is when major changes to the entire collegiate athletic system should be — and need to be — discussed.
The wide-ranging bribery scandal that led to 10 arrests, the likely end of Louisville coach Rick Pitino’s Hall of Fame coaching career and several prominent schools finding themselves in major trouble, demands it.
The accusations that college coaches were working with agents, sneaker company executives from Adidas and financial advisors to steer players to their schools in exchange for large sums of cash, and accepting handouts to push those players back to the professional moneymakers when turning pro, warrants it. The scandal is a gruesome black eye for the NCAA and covers much of the sport of college basketball.
“This is an opportunity for the NCAA to become human,” Sonny Vaccaro, the former Adidas, Reebok and Nike executive who signed schools to lucrative sneaker contracts and once ran grassroots basketball, said in a phone interview. “Do the right thing. Allow these kids to share in the revenues. This is their opportunity.”
Vaccaro is credited with starting the commercialization of the sport in the first place by giving out sneaker contracts to coaches he knew back in 1977. He understands the counter-argument to paying college athletes — that premier players will always be in demand, and therefore would likely command more benefits than their contemporaries. There would still be under-the-table deals, still be agents and sneaker companies working with college coaches for their own benefit.
His idea would be for the NCAA to install a separate entity that could accurately value what a student-athlete is worth, based on production and performance, how much money the respective program is bringing to the university. Allow the athletes to receive endorsements deals or make money off the likeness of their autograph or uniform. Offer a stipend. Give royalties. Any kind of compensation, he believes, would be an important first step.
College basketball bribery scandal: Who falls next?
Vaccaro wasn’t trying to excuse what went on. He described the accusations as “repulsive,” and said Adidas director of global marketing James Gatto, whom he hired at Adidas years ago and was one of the 10 people arrested on bribery and fraud charges, should be ashamed of his actions.
“I’m not only surprised, I’m disappointed,” Vaccaro said. “It’s not the young person I remember. It’s sad. I went to his wedding when I was still working. I’m sad that anybody gets caught up in these things.”
But everything that took place happened because of the marketplace, because the only compensation student athletes receive to make millions of dollars for their university is a scholarship paying for their education.
“The biggest culprit in this, and you’re going to laugh at me, is the NCAA,” Vaccaro said. “The NCAA itself has this fraudulent thing that the public has gullibly swallowed, the courts have swallowed, called amateurism. The [five-star prospect] is no different than the young man signing with the Knicks or Nets. They’re professional at this level.
“[The NCAA] lives in an archaic self-serving world. They’ll never recognize how the athletes are being used. All these entities [in this scandal] are tied to one thing, the players getting recruited.”
Too much money at stake for corrupt NCAA to ever change
By Phil Mushnick
September 28, 2017 | 8:13pm
Roughly 30 years ago, Sonny Vaccaro, Nike’s first great peddler of high school and college basketball influence — he’d later bring his expertise to Adidas — said, “It’s a cesspool, and we start the process.”
What happened this week in and to big-time, big-TV money college basketball — Federal, tip-of-the-iceberg indictments for alleged Adidas-provided recruiting payola — should have often happened, here, there and everywhere. Except …
It’s not as if Div. I presidents had any desire to ask, let alone discover, how and why their schools land top recruits — so many with poor grades and so many from so far away. College presidents are fundraisers. If big donors demand winning basketball teams, the presidents allow their institutions of higher learning to serve as fronts.
If winning games isn’t the top priority, why are coaches by far the schools’ best-paid employees, with millions more paid to buy out the unsuccessful?
And it’s not as if the local district attorneys want to poke around in the Dumpster next to the athletic department to investigate that stench. They’ve got to worry about elections. Many are season-ticket holders, too.
If local yahoos, especially wealthy yahoos with political clout, want their college team to win at any and all costs, why ruin their fun and risk their favor?
So it could only go down the way it did, Tuesday. Only the Feds, with no games to lose, could blow such a whistle. That’s how deep, dirty and disgraceful is the corruption of adults in luring teens to play college basketball, while their legitimate educations are optional or accidental.
And so Rick Pitino, this year due a $7.5 million “retention bonus,” again was “completely shocked” over what again went down on his watch — UNC’s Roy Williams for years had no idea his recruits weren’t academic geniuses, that those keep-‘em-eligible A’s were in no-show classes — is yet another Hall of Fame coach who figured that talented recruits, his in Adidas wear, just showed up in Louisville to play for him as a matter of annual good fortune.
We’ve read and heard that this week’s bust will forever change big-time, TV-moneyed college basketball. Nah. Like most reforms the NCAA has initiated, it will further drive it underground.
Remember when Penn St. football was cherished as stubbornly different because its uniforms were easily identified for only its numbers and two colors, nothing else, not even a school logo?
In 1993, when Nike began to buy influence over college football in addition to basketball, Penn State’s uniforms began to carry one added thing, and still do — the Nike swoosh. That, and the logos of other sneaker, gear and apparel cartels, has become the transparent substitute for the dollar sign. And money, or so we’re told, corrupts.
By Phil Mushnick
September 28, 2017 | 8:13pm
Roughly 30 years ago, Sonny Vaccaro, Nike’s first great peddler of high school and college basketball influence — he’d later bring his expertise to Adidas — said, “It’s a cesspool, and we start the process.”
What happened this week in and to big-time, big-TV money college basketball — Federal, tip-of-the-iceberg indictments for alleged Adidas-provided recruiting payola — should have often happened, here, there and everywhere. Except …
It’s not as if Div. I presidents had any desire to ask, let alone discover, how and why their schools land top recruits — so many with poor grades and so many from so far away. College presidents are fundraisers. If big donors demand winning basketball teams, the presidents allow their institutions of higher learning to serve as fronts.
If winning games isn’t the top priority, why are coaches by far the schools’ best-paid employees, with millions more paid to buy out the unsuccessful?
And it’s not as if the local district attorneys want to poke around in the Dumpster next to the athletic department to investigate that stench. They’ve got to worry about elections. Many are season-ticket holders, too.
If local yahoos, especially wealthy yahoos with political clout, want their college team to win at any and all costs, why ruin their fun and risk their favor?
So it could only go down the way it did, Tuesday. Only the Feds, with no games to lose, could blow such a whistle. That’s how deep, dirty and disgraceful is the corruption of adults in luring teens to play college basketball, while their legitimate educations are optional or accidental.
And so Rick Pitino, this year due a $7.5 million “retention bonus,” again was “completely shocked” over what again went down on his watch — UNC’s Roy Williams for years had no idea his recruits weren’t academic geniuses, that those keep-‘em-eligible A’s were in no-show classes — is yet another Hall of Fame coach who figured that talented recruits, his in Adidas wear, just showed up in Louisville to play for him as a matter of annual good fortune.
We’ve read and heard that this week’s bust will forever change big-time, TV-moneyed college basketball. Nah. Like most reforms the NCAA has initiated, it will further drive it underground.
Remember when Penn St. football was cherished as stubbornly different because its uniforms were easily identified for only its numbers and two colors, nothing else, not even a school logo?
In 1993, when Nike began to buy influence over college football in addition to basketball, Penn State’s uniforms began to carry one added thing, and still do — the Nike swoosh. That, and the logos of other sneaker, gear and apparel cartels, has become the transparent substitute for the dollar sign. And money, or so we’re told, corrupts.
Seems a number of kids originally destined for Big East schools went for the money at the last minute and will now basically lose everything due to greed.
This is going to get wild. I wouldn't be shocked to see a few coaches fired and players ruled ineligible in December- March. Once one person talks and names are brought up the list of people to talk to is going to grow tremendously. Lavar Ball is the exact loose cannon to get back at all 3 major apparel companies for not giving his sons a shoe contract. Who could have made up an ending where Lavar Ball possibly becomes the good guy? Although I have confindence he won't he will screw that up.
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