FBI make arrests

[Coach Bill Lewis]

The FBI arrested 10 people on charges of charges of fraud and corruption in college basketball on Tuesday.

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

Link: 
http://www.businessinsider.com/college-b...sts-2017-9

 

[letsgiveacheer]

Shocked, shocked, I tell ya

[Mean Green 93-98]

1 hour ago, letsgiveacheer said:

Shocked, shocked, I tell ya that Cal wasn't among those busted

FIFY

[letsgiveacheer]

50 minutes ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

FIFY

Quite right! I suspect more are coming very soon. Wonder why Louisville was not included in this initial round-up?

[outoftown]

Overall I just hope this helps clean up the AAU scene a bit in a way that the NCAA was simply not able too. That would really be good for the players I think.

College assistants who work at money schools being a bit more scared of playing foul can only be good for the mid majors ...provided no current or former UNT coach did anything wrong (no indication of it, but I think there are still a lot of people who haven't been named yet). 

Edited September 27, 2017 by outoftown

[UNTFan23]

20 hours ago, letsgiveacheer said:

Quite right! I suspect more are coming very soon. Wonder why Louisville was not included in this initial round-up?

Speaking of Louisville, the Athletics Director and Rick Pitino have both been fired.

[oldguystudent]

So now you gotta wonder in anything similar is going down in football, investigation wise.  Not sure which sport is dirtier at the top schools. 

[Caw Caw]

17 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

So now you gotta wonder in anything similar is going down in football, investigation wise.  Not sure which sport is dirtier at the top schools. 

Wonder? I think, as I always have, you have to assume. A lot of the sports writer on twitter have expressed the sporting company sponsored 7 on 7 is where a lot of this type of thing happens in football. Bagmen and money to high school players is a real and integral part of the college recruiting process. The surprise to me here, and it shouldn't have been, is how corporate the whole thing is.

[TreeFiddy]

Which part of paying a kid or coach is ‘illegal’.  Other than being an NCAA violation, Not sure I completely understand. 

[SAGreenFan]

1 hour ago, TreeFiddy said:

Which part of paying a kid or coach is ‘illegal’.  Other than being an NCAA violation, Not sure I completely understand. 

Saw this quick answer on the collegebasketball subreddit

Conspiracy to commit bribery , Solicitation of bribes and gratuities by an agent of a federally-funded organization (Lamont Evans, Emanuel Richardson, and Anthony Bland), Solicitation of bribes and gratuities by an agent of a federally-funded organization (Christian Dawkins and Munish Sood), Conspiracy to commit Honest Services Fraud, Honest services wire fraud (South Carolina, Oklahoma State, Arizona, USC), Wire fraud conspiracy, Travel act conspiracy

 

Also this snippet from Sports Illustrated

"The federal government's stake in this topic is multi-faceted. For one, the alleged bribes took place across state lines, meaning the persons travelled to different states or communicated across state lines. Such “interstate" activity triggered the possibility of federal charges for conspiracy, bribery, fraud and other crimes.

In addition, the federal government financially supports both public and private universities, including through financial student aid, grants and tax breaks. From that lens, coaches handle federal resources and those coaches' salaries are partly subsidized through the federal government. Further, these coaches, as one of the complaints details, “have the ability to provide sports agents, financial advisors, business managers and others with access to the student-athletes they coach" and wield “enormous influence over the student-athletes who play for them, in particular with respect to guiding those student-athletes through the process of selecting agents and other advisors when they prepare to leave college and enter the NBA." In at least an indirect sense, then, federal taxpayers are funding corruption in college sports.

With that background in mind, the Justice Department charges that the coaches and financial advisors conspired to commit bribery through educational programs that receive federal funds.

Travel Act conspiracy also serves as a basis for charges. Under federal law it is a crime to travel in interstate commerce, or use the mail or any facility in interstate, with the intent to distribute the proceeds of any unlawful activity or “promote, manage, establish, carry on, or facilitate the promotion, management, establishment, or carrying on, of any unlawful activity." Here the defendants are accused of using the U.S. postal system to further their system of bribes. Through this supposed scheme, the defendants allegedly “concealed bribe payments to high school student-athletes and/or their families" in exchange for matriculating to particular universities. By accepting those bribes, the Justice Department observes, the players became ineligible to compete in the NCAA. These five defendants are also accused of money laundering, meaning using unlawful means to give ill-gotten gains the appearance of being legitimate money."

 

 

[Mean_Green09]

On 9/26/2017 at 2:09 PM, Mean Green 93-98 said:

FIFY

And Coach K, Bill Self and more. This thing isnt done yet. 

[TreeFiddy]

5 hours ago, SAGreenFan said:

Saw this quick answer on the collegebasketball subreddit

Conspiracy to commit bribery , Solicitation of bribes and gratuities by an agent of a federally-funded organization (Lamont Evans, Emanuel Richardson, and Anthony Bland), Solicitation of bribes and gratuities by an agent of a federally-funded organization (Christian Dawkins and Munish Sood), Conspiracy to commit Honest Services Fraud, Honest services wire fraud (South Carolina, Oklahoma State, Arizona, USC), Wire fraud conspiracy, Travel act conspiracy

 

Also this snippet from Sports Illustrated

"The federal government's stake in this topic is multi-faceted. For one, the alleged bribes took place across state lines, meaning the persons travelled to different states or communicated across state lines. Such “interstate" activity triggered the possibility of federal charges for conspiracy, bribery, fraud and other crimes.

In addition, the federal government financially supports both public and private universities, including through financial student aid, grants and tax breaks. From that lens, coaches handle federal resources and those coaches' salaries are partly subsidized through the federal government. Further, these coaches, as one of the complaints details, “have the ability to provide sports agents, financial advisors, business managers and others with access to the student-athletes they coach" and wield “enormous influence over the student-athletes who play for them, in particular with respect to guiding those student-athletes through the process of selecting agents and other advisors when they prepare to leave college and enter the NBA." In at least an indirect sense, then, federal taxpayers are funding corruption in college sports.

With that background in mind, the Justice Department charges that the coaches and financial advisors conspired to commit bribery through educational programs that receive federal funds.

Travel Act conspiracy also serves as a basis for charges. Under federal law it is a crime to travel in interstate commerce, or use the mail or any facility in interstate, with the intent to distribute the proceeds of any unlawful activity or “promote, manage, establish, carry on, or facilitate the promotion, management, establishment, or carrying on, of any unlawful activity." Here the defendants are accused of using the U.S. postal system to further their system of bribes. Through this supposed scheme, the defendants allegedly “concealed bribe payments to high school student-athletes and/or their families" in exchange for matriculating to particular universities. By accepting those bribes, the Justice Department observes, the players became ineligible to compete in the NCAA. These five defendants are also accused of money laundering, meaning using unlawful means to give ill-gotten gains the appearance of being legitimate money."

 

 

Excellent information.  Had not thought of it in these types of terms.  This could definitely have far reaching impact for years to come.

[SAGreenFan]

1 hour ago, TreeFiddy said:

Excellent information.  Had not thought of it in these types of terms.  This could definitely have far reaching impact for years to come.

 This is completely unprecedented. Louisville may very well get the death penalty and lose its accreditation since they've already been put on probation for both last year. And they're not the only school or conference involved. This is huge.

Edited September 28, 2017 by SAGreenFan

[ttunt1970]

Yes this is the TIP OF THE ICEBERG!

[Graddean]

Several years ago after retiring, Tom Penders made the comment on a program that basketball had become the cesspool of college sports.  He attributed a lot to the situation with AAU basketball. He sai then he had been approached by coaches to deliver a highly ranked player in exchange for a job or money.

[MeanMag]

Brad Underwood, Lamont Evans and Frank Martin all have overlapping careers at multiple schools since 2006.

Kansas State, South Carolina, Oklahoma State.

In fact, I just read a story that Frank Martin could be a contender for the opening at Louisville...

[Harry]

This thing is HUGE but what makes me mad is that the NCAA is pretending they knew nothing about it.  Read this carefully worded statement from the Emmett at the NCAA and tell me you think they are innocent on this deal:

“The nature of the charges brought by the federal government are deeply disturbing. 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.”

 

[oldguystudent]

[emmitt01]

So when does SMU's sudden "resurgence" get exposed?  

[oldguystudent]

2 minutes ago, emmitt01 said:

So when does SMU's sudden "resurgence" get exposed?  

This was the FBI going after big fish, not the NCAA looking to smack down the little guy to prove how pious it is.  Do you think SMU would even be on the FBI's radar for something of this magnitude? 

[outoftown]

58 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

This was the FBI going after big fish, not the NCAA looking to smack down the little guy to prove how pious it is.  Do you think SMU would even be on the FBI's radar for something of this magnitude? 

Depends... how much money did SMU spend?

Edited September 28, 2017 by outoftown

[MeanGreenTexan]

1 hour ago, oldguystudent said:

This was the FBI going after big fish, not the NCAA looking to smack down the little guy to prove how pious it is.  Do you think SMU would even be on the FBI's radar for something of this magnitude? 

Larry Brown and top 25 rankings could put them in the crosshairs as well.   

[CMJ]

It could legitimately be every power school in the country that is involved in this mess.  

 

On the other hand, it may never balloon that big depending on what the Feds already have, because everyone will certainly walk a straight line for the immediate future.

[Harry]

How in the heck does Bruce Pearl at Auburn keep his gig?  Wasn't he already in trouble for items at Tenn.?  

[TIgreen01]

I wish I could get excited over this news, but I am sadly a hardened skeptic.

One thing I'd like to know is what got the FBI investigating this stuff in the first place?  I mean, college coaches have been facilitating this kind of "bribery" or under the table payment system for decades.  What has changed?