Adidas Scandal (FBI Investigation, Several Schools Impacted)

[hallcity]

Tom Winter‏Verified account @Tom_Winter

BREAKING NEWS / NBC: The FBI has arrested several NCAA asst. basketball coaches in a corruption scheme. Presser @ 12n with U.S. Attorney

Here's the press release from the US Attorney's Office SDNY:
There will be a press conference today at noon to announce charges of fraud and corruption in college basketball. 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 international sportswear company. The press conference will be livestreamed on Facebook @USAOSDNY.

[sammy3469]

Tom Winter‏Verified account @Tom_Winter

BREAKING NEWS / NBC: The FBI has arrested several NCAA asst. basketball coaches in a corruption scheme. Presser @ 12n with U.S. Attorney

Here's the press release from the US Attorney's Office SDNY:
There will be a press conference today at noon to announce charges of fraud and corruption in college basketball. 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 international sportswear company. The press conference will be livestreamed on Facebook @USAOSDNY.

Chuck Person was named. From two of the complaints it looks like Auburn, a public university in Kentucky (so LY or Louisville), and a private Florida University (Miami maybe) are involved. The Kentucky money is large.

The complaints are at the bottom of that page.

Last complaint has public universities in Arizona (Arizona Book Richardson arrested), California (USC...Tony Bland arrested), Oklahoma (this is OK St since Lamont Evans is named), and South Carolina

[dukebluesincebirth]

Hmmm... that's quite a teaser. I wonder what company?? Big Baller Brand😄????

[OldPhiKap]

This is not sunny news.

I hope that the institutions involved are not in the ACC. But since expansion, we've been as dirty a conference as the ones we pointed to derisively in the past.

And UNC, of course, has always thought itself above the law.

[hallcity]

Here are the indictments:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr...98756/download
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr...98746/download

[Owen Meany]

From quick google search - coaches from Auburn, Ok St, Arizona and USC are reportedly involved.

[hallcity]

From Business Insider:

... 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.

Jim Gatto, director of global sports marketing for basketball at Adidas, and Merl Code, the head of Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League as of 2013, were also named as defendants.

The pair and three other defendants have been charged with "making and concealing bribe payments" to high school student athletes and/or their families. Other defendants include Jonathan Brad Augustine, president of nonprofit The League Initiative, and Christian Dawkins, a former sports agent fired in May for charging $42,000 in Uber ribes on an NBA player's credit card.

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that the arrests were part of a "wide-ranging" investigation focused on financial advisors, agents, and apparel companies paid coaches, in exchange for pressuring players to associate with certain entities. ...

[camion]

A leaked video of the raid.

https://youtu.be/SjbPi00k_ME

[Atlanta Duke]

Here are the indictments:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr...98756/download
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr...98746/download

Thanks for links

Never a good look when you have aka first name only aliases for the named defendants in the caption of the criminal complaint

[dudog84]

I really really hope the NCAA doesn't use this to take the focus off of uNC.

[ChillinDuke]

Chuck Person was named. From two of the complaints it looks like Auburn, a public university in Kentucky (so LY or Louisville), and a private Florida University (Miami maybe) are involved. The Kentucky money is large.

The complaints are at the bottom of that page.

Last complaint has public universities in Arizona (Arizona Book Richardson arrested), California (USC...Tony Bland arrested), Oklahoma (this is OK St since Lamont Evans is named), and South Carolina

Per Wikipedia, Louisville has a "Total enrollment: 22,640 (2016)" and the Lamont Evans complaint says a public university in KY with ~22,640 students. So...seems like Louisville.

Same thing: private university in FL ~16K students per complaint. Wiki says Miami has "Total enrollment: 16,848 (2015)."

By the same logic, Auburn looks right.

"Public university in SC >30K students". Clemson is 23.4K; SC is 33.7K. SC? Neither?

Public OKlahoma >25K. OU is 30K+. OSU is 25.9, so probably OSU?

Public Arizona >40K. ASU way too big. Arizona looks right.

Private California >40K. Too many California schools for me to look.

Gotta run for now...

- Chillin

[OldPhiKap]

I really really hope the NCAA doesn't use this to take the focus off of uNC.

My hope is that the NCAA determines it has to take a strong stand to protect what little is left of its reputation. Hammer time.

[Owen Meany]

I assumed USC is Southern Call, not South Carolina.

[OldPhiKap]

I assumed USC is Southern Call, not South Carolina.

If an assistant did something wrong under Frank Martin, they may never find the body. Just sayin'

I assume the same, although in this undisclosed part of the world the only USC is in Columbia.

[sammy3469]

Per Wikipedia, Louisville has a "Total enrollment: 22,640 (2016)" and the Lamont Evans complaint says a public university in KY with ~22,640 students. So...seems like Louisville.

Same thing: private university in FL ~16K students per complaint. Wiki says Miami has "Total enrollment: 16,848 (2015)."

By the same logic, Auburn looks right.

"Public university in SC >30K students". Clemson is 23.4K; SC is 33.7K. SC? Neither?

Public OKlahoma >25K. OU is 30K+. OSU is 25.9, so probably OSU?

Public Arizona >40K. ASU way too big. Arizona looks right.

Private California >40K. Too many California schools for me to look.

Gotta run for now...

- Chillin

The complaint with James Gatto is the Adidas one which is the Kentucky public/Florida private school one. Louisville and Miami are both the only Adidas schools (Kentucky is Nike) in their state that meet the public/private criteria.

[Owen Meany]

The FBI says Gatto (Adidas) offered one family $100,000 to get a player to attend an Adidas school. I would be nervous if I were a fan of an Adidas school.

Note a former Nike executive is reportedly also involved. I would hope Nike was entrenched enough that no one would feel the need to do such a thing (even if they were willing to break the rules themselves).

[sammy3469]

I assumed USC is Southern Call, not South Carolina.

There are two...a public school in South Carolina and a private in California (USC had their asst coach arrested). The South Carolina school is unknown.

Actually I take that back the South Carolina school is South Carolina since Lamont Evans came from there as outlined in the complaint.

[Atlanta Duke]

From quick google search - coaches from Auburn, Ok St, Arizona and USC are reportedly involved.

Auburn assistant Chuck Person, Oklahoma State assistant Lamont Evans, Arizona assistant Emanuel Richardson and USC assistant Tony Bland.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas...aud-corruption

Tony Bland is with Southern Cal

[SCMatt33]

If Louisville is indeed involved, it will be very important to look at dates of these transactions. From my reading of the bylaws, they would be subject to the repeat violator clause for violations occurring after June, when their punishment was officially handed down for the strippers. Obviously we have to wait and see exactly what happened because I'm sure the NCAA will view things differently if this was limited to coaches and (who they thought were) agents, or if players were involved with receiving any of this money on the back end.

[sammy3469]

So the seven schools looks like:

Auburn
Louisville
Miami
South Carolina
Ok St
USC
Arizona