The Slatest

Four College Basketball Coaches Charged With Corruption Over Alleged Bribery

Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim speaks at a press conference on Tuesday in New York.

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Four assistant NCAA coaches and six other people connected to college basketball were charged with fraud and corruption Tuesday after federal investigators allegedly found they had exchanged thousands of dollars in bribes to steer star players toward certain agents and financial advisers.

The coaches are Arizona’s Emanuel Richardson, Auburn’s Chuck Person, Oklahoma State’s Lamont Evans, and the University of Southern California’s Tony Bland. The others charged are managers, financial advisers, and the director of global sports marketing at Adidas, according to the Associated Press. They were arrested after a two-year FBI investigation into corruption in the NCAA.

A criminal complaint alleges that on multiple occasions, the coaches received thousands of dollars to influence career decisions made by their players:

The investigation has revealed numerous instances of bribes paid by athlete advisors—including financial advisors and business managers, among others—to assistant and associate basketball coaches employed by NCAA Division I universities, and sometimes directly to the student-athletes at NCAA Division I universities as facilitated by the coaches, in exchange for those coaches exerting their influence over the student-athletes under their control to retain the services of the of the bribe-payers once the athletes enter the National Basketball Association.

In the complaint, the investigators said they found several instances of coaches abusing their influence on players to direct them toward advisers who offered bribes, rather than the best advisers for the players’ careers. “Many such coaches have 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,” the complaint said.

At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, the acting Manhattan U.S. attorney said the charges were a black mark on all of college basketball: “Coaches at some of the nation’s top programs taking cash bribes, managers and advisers circling blue-chip prospects like coyotes, and employees of a global sportswear company funneling cash to families of high school recruits.”

The complaint also alleges that a James Gatto, the director of global sports marketing at Adidas, and others paid $100,000 to the family of an unnamed high school player to sign with an unnamed school in Kentucky—which ESPN reported is the University of Louisville—that has an athletic program sponsored by Adidas. Under the agreement, the player would also sign with Adidas upon becoming a professional player. Another charge alleges a second bribe of $150,000 for a similar agreement.

Adidas told the AP that it was “unaware of any misconduct by an employee and vowed to fully cooperate with authorities.”