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

[Da Coach]

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.

[Da Coach]

This case has been under investigation for more than 2 years, and involves apparel company money being funnelled to players through agents, college assistant coaches and other personnel.

Here is one page from the Justice Department's documents with several names-

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKp1LPbWsAIi7R3.jpg

[Da Coach]

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]

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

[Da Coach]

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/statu...69007890796546

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/sportsextra/osusportsextra/osu-s-lamont-evans-nine-others-charged-in-crackdown-on/article_2bbc9699-67c2-5059-8676-b7597537e6ba.html

[Da Coach]

The case is summarized by the latest tweet from NBC News' Tom Winter-

https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/status/912680715967451138

NBC News: Criminal complaint says agents and advisors tried to recruit players early in their career and paid athletes and/or their families

[tornado]

"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

[Da Coach]

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.com/2017/6/2/15723140/recruiting-louisvilles-stunning-late-coup-acc-basketball

[Da Coach]

New article-
College Basketball Coaches Allegedly Took Bribes From Agents to Deliver Athletes

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/college-basketball-coaches-allegedly-took-bribes-agents-deliver-athletes-n804781

BTW, Louisville's Adidas deal is worth $160 million over 10 years, the richest Adidas deal in college sports-

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/college/louisville/2017/08/25/where-does-louisville-new-adidas-rank-among-college-program-sponsorships/600528001/

[Da Coach]

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.com...acc-basketball

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.

[Da Coach]

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-basketball/news/four-college-basketball-assistant-coaches-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."

[tornado]

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/s...83959305285633

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/watch-live-us-attorneys-office-to-address-fbis-investigation-of-ncaa-officials-at-12-pm

[Da Coach]

Here is another link to watch the press conference by the Justice Dept.
I think this one might be a litle better quality video stream than the one in the above post.-

https://www.facebook.com/usaosdny/videos/vb.906121526161994/1441397979301010/?type=3&theater

As of 11:05 am it has not yet begun.

[Da Coach]

Press conference to begin in 2 minutes...

[tornado]

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/st...78344080072704 - 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