Last Tuesday, NCAA basketball took a hit as 10 people were arrested, including four college basketball coaches, as part of an investigation into possible corruption. At a press conference, acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim stated the investigation is still ongoing and there could be more arrests and schools involved.
Assistant coaches from Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State and University of Southern California were arrested, according to court documents. The University of Louisville and University of Miami were not named in the records, but the investigation findings had two unnamed universities that fit the descriptions of the two schools.
There are many components of the two-year investigation, including undercover agents, wiretaps and surveillance video resulting in three different criminal complaints, according to court documents released by the U.S. Justice Department.
Although Creighton isn’t being investigated, the University does still have ties to the current findings. According to the Omaha World-Herald, Brian Bowen, a five-star recruit, was heavily recruited by the Jays before committing to Louisville on June 5.
In the FBI’s findings, it lists an institution labeled as “University-6” that is a public research institution in the state of Kentucky with a student body of 22,640.
All of these descriptions fit Louisville. It also accuses several peple of funneling approximately $100,000 to “Player-10”, which fits the description of Bowen. The document accuses several individuals, including Adidas head of global marketing James Gatto, an affiliate of Adidas’ high school and college basketball programs Merl Code, financial adviser Munish Sood and former agent Christian Dawkins.
These four individuals allegedly conspired with an assistant coach from Louisville to pay the father of Brian Bowen for his commitment to play basketball at Louisville and then sign an endorsement deal with Adidas when he entered the NBA Draft. The alleged deal would have involved Bowen committing to sign Dawkins as his agent and Sood as his financial adviser after he would leave Louisville.
Gatto, Code, Sood and Dawkins have all been arrested. Brian Bowen has been suspended indefinitely from Louisville’s basketball team, and Louisville coach Rick Pitino and athletic director Tom Jurich have been put on administrative leave. The details of these findings are found in the criminal complaint United States of America v. James Gatto, Merl Code, Christian Dawkins, Jonathan Brad Augustine and Munish Sood.
There is one other University listed in the same complaint. Miami fits the descriptions the documents give for “University-7,” although they are not named directly.
In the complaint, it’s alleged that Gatto, Code, Dawkins and AAU program director Brad Augustine conspired with a Miami assistant coach to funnel $150,000 to a top high school recruit for his commitment to Miami, then sign with Adidas and Dawkins’ agency once he joined the NBA.
In another criminal complaint, Dawkins and Sood were accused of being a part of a bribery scheme with three different schools. Allegedly, as part of the bribe, an assistant coach from each of the schools would pressure their players into hiring Dawkins and Sood as a manager and financial adviser, respectively, after the players went pro.
The FBI is accusing Emanuel Richardson, an assistant coach at Arizona, of accepting payments of $20,000 from Dawkins and Sood as part of the bribe scheme.
According to the complaint, Anthony Bland, an assistant coach at the USC, agreed to influence his players to Dawkins and Sood in exchange for $13,000. At Bland’s discretion, Dawkins and Sood paid $9,000 to the families of two student athletes at USC directly.
Lamont Evans was accused of being a part of the bribe at two universities, first at South Carolina, then at Oklahoma State. Evans allegedly received a total of $22,000 in bribes from Sood and Dawkins for him to direct his players in their direction.
The FBI filed one more criminal complaint revolving around a bribery scheme in NCAA basketball. Auburn assistant coach Chuck Person is accused of being paid $91,500 over a 10-month period by Rashan Michel, an owner of a clothing label. In exchange for the money, Person would steer his student-athletes to use Michel as a suit maker.
The three criminal complaints have put a cloud over NCAA basketball and the recruiting process of high school prospects. Through social media, several recruits from the schools involved have de-committed amid the investigation’s findings.
As the investigation is still ongoing, more individuals and schools may be named in the future.