Coaches from top college basketball programs arrested for fraud and corruption

[ClassLessCoyote]

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...asketball-coaches-10-charged-fraud-corruption

NEW YORK -- Federal prosecutors have announced charges of fraud and corruption against 10 people involved in college basketball, including assistant coaches at Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State and USC.

The coaches named in court documents are Auburn's Chuck Person, Oklahoma State's Lamont Evans, Arizona's Emanuel "Book" Richardson and USC's Tony Bland. It was not immediately clear who would represent them at initial court appearances.

Other people charged in Manhattan federal court included managers, financial advisers and representatives of a major international sportswear company. The details were to be discussed at a news conference Tuesday at noon ET.

Other people named in the documents include James Gatto, director of global sports marketing at Adidas; Merl Code, who recently left Nike for Adidas; Christian Dawkins, an NBA agent who was fired in May from ASM Sports for charging approximately $42,000 in Uber charges on a player's credit card; Jonathan Brad Augustine, president of The League Initiative and program director of the Adidas-sponsored 1 Family AAU program; Munish Sood, a financial adviser; and Rashan Michel, a former NBA official who founded Thompson Bespoke Clothing, a custom clothier for athletes.

Since 2015, the FBI has been investigating the criminal influence of money on coaches and student-athletes in the NCAA, federal authorities said.

They said the probe has revealed numerous instances in which bribes were paid by athlete advisers, such as financial advisers and associate coaches, to other coaches to exert influence over student-athletes so the athletes would use the services of those paying the bribes.

In criminal complaints, investigators said coaches can provide access for the student-athletes to sports agents, financial advisers, business managers and others.

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[Vamos Rafa]

Lol @ USC being a "top college hoops program."

 

[rangerssharks414]

I am totally shocked that college programs are doing this.

 

[PhillyWings]

Cannot wait for the 30 for 30 should be a multi part series.

 

[GarbageGoal]

Cannot wait for the 30 for 30 should be a multi part series.

Spoilers

First sleazy coach: "The cars, the women, the coke....we were literally rolling on beds of money, the temptation was too much".......

USA Today reporter: "Kids were getting shoes, clothes, cars.....one coach had a mansion he put a kids whole family in for a year"

Federal agent: "When we got a recruit to wear a wire.....boom, we knew we had them"

Second sleazy coach: "It was a wake up call. I'm so glad I found God and my family in the end....."

doo...doo...dooooooo.......

 

[Gator Mike]

Today is a great day for everyone that loves college basketball.

Expose the cheaters and get them out.

 

[StatesideSensFan]

haha like anything will really change.
U of L isnt getting the death penalty
Pitino will coach again if he wants

sure, one or two minor players will be banned or get show cause, but that is it i suspect.

 

[ClassLessCoyote]

http://tucson.com/sports/arizonawil...cle_0ac3d4ae-a2c3-11e7-8234-472ac626eb67.html

Longtime Arizona assistant basketball coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson was released from federal custody on a $50,000 bond Tuesday following his arrest as part of a federal corruption scheme.

Richardson appeared in U.S. District Court in Tucson on charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, solicitation of bribes by an agent of a federally funded organization, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and travel act conspiracy.

If convicted, Richardson is facing a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine, court officials said.

The UA athletic department said in a statement that it became aware of the situation Tuesday morning and "confirmed that Richardson has been suspended effective immediately. We will cooperate fully with authorities as they move through their investigation."

The UA athletic department said, "We work under the basic directive that all department personnel operate within applicable laws and NCAA rules. The behavior that Richardson is accused of is completely unacceptable and does not reflect the principles of this athletics department."

 

[sabremike]

haha like anything will really change.
U of L isnt getting the death penalty
Pitino will coach again if he wants

sure, one or two minor players will be banned or get show cause, but that is it i suspect.

this isn't the NCAA doing an investigation, it's the feds. They don't mess around. They aren't going to lay off big name schools. NCAA sanctions are a moot point if your coach and staff are headed to prison.

 

[Voight]

haha like anything will really change.
U of L isnt getting the death penalty
Pitino will coach again if he wants

sure, one or two minor players will be banned or get show cause, but that is it i suspect.

Cards are already in major **** for the last violation. This makes things a lot worse.

https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa-needs...hell-allegations-prove-correct-181930063.html

The program should be shut down, if the bombshell allegations announcement of allegations Tuesday prove to be true. If that doesn’t happen, the NCAA is useless.

Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino should be gone, a gilded career ending in disgrace. It seems highly plausible that he will take athletic director Tom Jurich with him, a man who lifted an entire department, and now oversees its ruination.

They were heroes here, for many years. And now they have been party to multiple scandals and a stain so deep on the basketball program that it may never fully go away. SMU football knows the feeling.

Louisville already was ordered by the NCAA in the spring to vacate its 2013 national title because of stripper parties for recruits and players funded by a former program staffer. That was embarrassment enough. Now there is this, very strong evidence that the school is involved in high-dollar buying of players.

One side of my entire family is Cardinals fans, and then theres me and my cousin who are UK fans. For almost 10 years now they've been telling us "Cal is going to get caught! UK is going down! He/they cheat all the time!" well here we are in 2017 and the closest thing to a scandal we've had is that thing with Drake. I'm lovin' every minute of it.

 

[John Price]

AD, Pitino all possibly gone

 

[Gene Parmesan]

This isn't over.

 

[Voight]

haha like anything will really change.
U of L isnt getting the death penalty
Pitino will coach again if he wants

sure, one or two minor players will be banned or get show cause, but that is it i suspect.

I doubt it, this is his second scandal in 3 years (third in his time fi you count him cheating on his wife as one) and the only reason he wasn't fired after the first one is the fact it came right after a national championship (which is likely going to be vacated anyway). I can't see how U of L doesn't get the death penalty or something close to it.

 

[DaveG]

This isn't over.

Not by a long shot. As I posted in the offseason thread, apparently the Feds did a raid of Nike yesterday over this same issue. The shit is about to hit the fan.

 

[John Price]

Tom Crean was largely a mediocre coach who couldn't handle the pressure of being in a big time program. I'm sure @IU Hawks fan would disagree with me on this but I always thought Crean was overrated. He is a good recruiter but there are many better than him at x and o's.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

No one thinks he's overrated. Everyone knows he's a crappy coach that can recruit.

 

[John Price]

No one thinks he's overrated. Everyone knows he's a crappy coach that can recruit.

Indiana blew so many late game situations because of his inability to coach. I'm glad he's gone. Indiana has a real coach now.

 

[DaveG]

I'm legitimately wondering who on the Nike side is going to prove to be just as shady as Pitino was, because you know that's going to come out. Doubt anyone's going to put their program at risk for the death penalty to the same extent Rick and Adidas just did though.

 

[DaveG]

And it gets even better

http://amp.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/unc/unc-now/article175770971.html

 

[John Price]

 

[PanthersPens62]

Hoping nothing major happens to my beloved U. An assistant coach is possibly involved.

 

[Gene Parmesan]

Not by a long shot. As I posted in the offseason thread, apparently the Feds did a raid of Nike yesterday over this same issue. The shit is about to hit the fan.

Right now they are targeting AAU ball. Next is 7 on 7 for football.

 

[John Price]

 

[PredsV82]

I'm surprised at the amount of bluster coming from Pitino and his attorney. The word on the street in Louisville is they have RP on wiretap. If that's the case, he's toast.

 

[rangerssharks414]

I don't think Louisville will get the death penalty because A-C-C.

I honestly haven't been following this story, so I really have no idea. But if Penn State football didn't get the death penalty, Louisville basketball probably won't.