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FBI and US Justice Dept. charge several college basketball coaches with corruption

Da Coach

Da Coach

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This will be major news- the FBI and the US Justice Department have a press conference today at noon Eastern time (11:00 AM Central time) to announce charges of fraud and corruption in college basketball related in some way to connections with a shoe company.
Federal criminal charges have been brought against ten people, including four college basketball coaches, as well as managers, financial advisors, and representatives of a major shoe company.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/press-conference-advisory-2


Some of the names of those involved are already circulating on twitter, but I will not mention names yet.
But the names involve assistant coaches at USC, Arizona, Auburn, and Oklahoma State.
And the shoe company rumored to be involved is Adidas, but that is not yet confirmed.
For what it is worth, Bradley is an Adidas school.
 
More updates- follow NBC News' Tom Winter, who broke this story-
https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter

He is reporting the D1 assistant coaches charged are:
Emanuel Richardson at Arizona
Tony Bland at USC
Chuck Person at Auburn
Lamont Evans at Oklahoma State
 
tornado said:
surprise - one of Bruce Pearl's staff is the first to get named...as is one of Illini's Brad Underwood's top assistant & assistants from Arizona & USC
https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/status/912669007890796546
Click to expand...

One of the assistant coaches charged is Lamont Evans, who was hired at Oklahoma State in 2016 by Brad Underwood (he was an assistant coach at South Carolina prior to that). After Underwood took the Illinois job last March, Evans remained at Oklahoma State when fellow assistant coach Mike Boynton was promoted to head coach. It seems likely the illegal activities he is being charged with may have occurred while Underwood was the head coach.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsext...cle_2bbc9699-67c2-5059-8676-b7597537e6ba.html
 
"Feds allege that Chuck Person (Auburn) agreed to $50K deal to steer player to agent, who was former NBA official & custom clothier Rishan Michel."

https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/912675600531443713


"Feds: adidas head of sports marketing Jim Gatto, with others, paid high school players to go to adidas schools, then sign with adidas later."
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/912677151685726208

Funny how they appear to currently only be targeting adidas connections - but everyone's saying that Nike & others do the same..


it only remotely has to do with recruiting - but recruits and players were allegedly offered bribes to play at Auburn (and the other schools) with the promise that later they would sign with the specified agent and then agree to a deal with adidas, with the coaches getting a cut of the bribe.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/998746/download
 
There are apparently at least a couple more schools, in addition to USC, Oklahoma State, Auburn, & Syracuse who are targeted, and only referred to cryptically in the Justice Department papers with terms like "University 6".

One of the additional schools looks suspiciously like it may be Louisville. If so, it could be ominous for Louisville and their head coach Rick Pitino. They are currently still serving penalties from their stripper/prostitution scandal, and are in the first year of a 4-year NCAA imposed probation.

Also, one of the unnamed players referred to only as "Player 9" is suspected to be this consensus 5-star recruit, Brian Bowen, who suddenly and surprisingly enrolled at Louisville this summer without ever announcing where he was committing. Louisville is an adidas school. I wonder how much this kid got?-
https://www.dukebasketballreport.co...louisvilles-stunning-late-coup-acc-basketball
 
Da Coach said:
There are apparently at least a couple more schools, in addition to USC, Oklahoma State, Auburn, & Syracuse who are targeted, and only referred to cryptically in the Justice Department papers with terms like "University 6".

One of the additional schools looks suspiciously like it may be Louisville. If so, it could be ominous for Louisville and their head coach Rick Pitino. They are currently still serving penalties from their stripper/prostitution scandal, and are in the first year of a 4-year NCAA imposed probation.

Also, one of the unnamed players referred to only as "Player 9" is suspected to be this consensus 5-star recruit, Brian Bowen, who suddenly and surprisingly enrolled at Louisville this summer without ever announcing where he was committing. Louisville is an adidas school. I wonder how much this kid got?-
https://www.dukebasketballreport.co...louisvilles-stunning-late-coup-acc-basketball
Click to expand...

https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/status/912696920375734273

NEW: Several defendants are accused of facilitating payments to a high school player in order for him to play at University of Louisville.
 
Now being reported that Brian Bowen, the 5-star recruit referred to above, "received approximately $100,000 to ensure his commitment to Louisville"

https://twitter.com/GaryParrishCBS/status/912683959305285633

https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...es-hit-with-federal-fraud-corruption-charges/

Jim Gatto, director of global sports marketing for Adidas, was among those arrested. He's accused of helping funnel approximately $100,000 to the family of an "All-American high school basketball player" to secure the prospect's commitment to a school Adidas sponsors. According to documents, the prospect committed in June. The only "All-American high school basketball player" who committed to a school Adidas sponsors in June is Brian Bowen. He's now enrolled at Louisville.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino was asked about Bowen's commitment in June.
"We got lucky on this one," Pitino said. "I had an AAU director call me and say, 'Would you be interested in a basketball player?' I said ... 'Yeah, I'd be really interested.' But [Bowen and his people] had to come in unofficially, pay for their hotels, pay for their meals. So we spent zero dollars recruiting a five-star athlete who I loved when I saw him play. In my 40-some-odd years of coaching, this is the luckiest I've been."
Christian Dawkins, a sports agent, was among those arrested. According to documents, he told an unidentified Louisville coach they would have to be "particularly careful" with how they passed money to Bowen and his family because Louisville was already on probation. The Louisville coach agreed, according to the document, and said, "We gotta be very low key."
 
Da Coach said:
Now being reported that Brian Bowen, the 5-star recruit referred to above, "received approximately $100,000 to ensure his commitment to Louisville"

https://twitter.com/GaryParrishCBS/status/912683959305285633
Click to expand...

interestingly - the coach at La Lumiere bolted this summer to grab another job..
I have asked for 10 years if anyone could name a La Lumiere player who went on to a DI school and made any impact - nobody ever has...
and Brian Bowen was kinda set to become the FIRST to maybe do so - but now it is unlikely he will ever play a college game.

...and I suspect someone in the higher ups at NCAA knew this stuff was going on but it finally takes the FBI to expose it...
I just hope nothing ties this stuff to Bradley - or any MVC school - Underwood is already tied in given one of the arrested assistants was his and Chin now works there - bothersome

the FBI's live press conference is on right now - click here
http://www.wdrb.com/story/36454374/...fbis-investigation-of-ncaa-officials-at-12-pm
 
announcement that the press conference will start at 11:15am Central
the speaker is the acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Joon Kim- who was named by Jeff Sessions when the former US Attorney was relieved of his duties when he refused to honor the US Attorney General's orders to resign.


Revelations so far....
-meetings with players & their families and coaches were secretly recorded and the coaches incriminated themselves
-informants tipped off the FBI to who was involved in the bribes and lying
-FBI agents masqueraded as agents or representatives of AAU programs and recorded bribery offers between adidas execs and top high school players
-many FBI recorded conversations detailed direct negotiations for handing cash to coaches and players
-Christian Dawkins, a business manager; Munish Sood, a financial adviser; and Jonathan Brand Augustine, who runs an Adidas-sponsored AAU basketball team and Merl Code, Agent were the middle-men who brokered the bribes- but possibly some of them are now apparently working with the FBI ("Cooperating witness") but they apparently will be charged.
The four assistant coached have been charged as has the exec from adidas Jim Gatto.

https://twitter.com/JeffEisenberg/status/912678344080072704 - University-6 is Louisville and Player-10 is Brian Bowen


This will turn out to be bigger than the bribery/point shaving scandal of 1951
 
adidas' official statement


DKqFTzgWkAAed4q.jpg:small



so their defense is gonna be -- it wasn't us, it was a rogue employee and we didn't know a damned thing about it...
 
Here is a list of all the individuals and teams with adidas sponsorship deals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Adidas_sponsorships

Division I College Basketball teams include


Akron Zips
Arizona State Sun Devils
Arkansas State Red Wolves
Bradley Braves
Brown Bears
Pennsylvania Bucknell Bison
California Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners
Central Arkansas Bears and Sugar Bears
Central Michigan Chippewas
Citadel Bulldogs
Denver Pioneers
Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens
Detroit Titans
Drake Bulldogs
Duquesne Dukes
East Carolina Pirates
Eastern Illinois Panthers
Eastern Michigan Eagles
Eastern Washington Eagles
FIU Panthers
Florida Atlantic Owls
Georgia Southern Eagles
George Mason Patriots
High Point Panthers
Holy Cross Crusaders
Iona Gaels
Indiana Hoosiers
Jacksonville State Gamecocks
Kansas Jayhawks
Kennesaw State Owls
Longwood Lancers
Louisiana–Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns
Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs and Lady Techsters
Louisville Cardinals
Maine Black Bears
Mercer Bears
Miami Hurricanes
Miami RedHawks
Milwaukee Panthers
Mississippi State Bulldogs
Missouri State Bears and Lady Bears
Morgan State Bears
NC State Wolfpack
Nebraska Cornhuskers
Nicholls State Colonels
NJIT Highlanders
Northern Illinois Huskies
Northern Kentucky Norse
Ohio University Bobcats
Nebraska Omaha Mavericks
Presbyterian Blue Hose
Quinnipiac Bobcats
Rhode Island Rams
Rice Owls
Rider Broncs
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Sacramento State Hornets
Sacred Heart Pioneers
San Jose State University Spartans
SIU Edwardsville Cougars
South Dakota Coyotes
Southern Utah Thunderbirds
St. Bonaventure Bonnies
Texas A&M Aggies
Texas A&M–Corpus Christi Islanders
Texas-Arlington Mavericks
Texas–Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros
Texas State Bobcats
Troy Trojans
Tulsa Golden Hurricane
UC Davis Aggies
UC Irvine Anteaters
UC Merced Golden Bobcats
UC Riverside Highlanders
UIC Flames
UMass Minutemen and Minutewomen
UNC Asheville Bulldogs
UNCW Seahawks
Utah Valley Wolverines
UTSA Roadrunners
Vermont Catamounts
Weber State Wildcats
Western Carolina Catamounts
Western Michigan Broncos
Winthrop Eagles
Wofford Terriers
 
another player that can be identified is
"Player-11" ...said to have been paid to agree to attend the university as a member of the 2019 signing class."


Louisville has only one 2019 commit

but does anyone remember these occurrences??


EYEWITNESSES saw USC head coach Tim Floyd hand deliver an envelop with CASH to an agent to deliver top prospect OJ Mayo to USC... other testimony also said up to $250,000 more went to Mayo thru middlemen

USC also paid as much as $200,000 in benefits to Reggie Bush - well documented

Cam Newton's own father attests to the fact that Auburn paid $200,000 to land his son

Witnesses said Anthony Davis' family was paid $200,000 for him to attend Kentucky

John Wall was paid by agents then landed at Kentucky

A package sent by Kentucky's head coach's assistant to top recruit Chris Mills fell open on the way to Mills and $1000 in cash spilled out

Large cash payments were made to multiple North Carolina athletes by agents

UConn funneled large sums of money to prospects thru agents

Multiple witnesses proved that Louisville spent tens of thousands of dollars on parties with prostitutes for recruits and players

In all these cases, NCAA gave a slap, acted like they did not know anything more was going on and closed the books on this pervasive scandal.
This investigation has been a long time coming and just maybe it will clean up the scandals and level the playing field.
 
Yes, this whole case is nothing more than an example of the US Justice Dept. and the FBI doing what the NCAA is supposed to do for itself, but didn't bother to do.


Louisville has received notice from the FBI that they are under investigation-
https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/912744708102852608


If the NCAA had done their job properly, they would be facing a decision to hammer Louisville with the death penalty for these illegal activities while just being placed on probation for some pretty severe violations, and we all know they don't want to have to do that. So it's easier to spend their time investigating low-Division I schools like Grambling, and non-Division I schools like Lyndon State, and hammering them with severe sanctions.
 
Unlike the NCAA, the FBI doesn't give a flip about an athlete maybe getting a free hamburger, free cab fare, or getting overpaid on a summer job...
they know real fraud when they see it - cuz it will always involve substantial sums of money
Thus, I think no small school or midmajor will be nailed in this since who would have that kind of money to throw around?
 
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