College coaches facing charges
NEW YORK — Following a two-year corruption probe, US authorities on Tuesday filed fraud charges against 10 people associated with some of the country’s premier college basketball programs, including four coaches and an Adidas AG executive.
Prosecutors said they uncovered two schemes, including one in which apparel executives, financial advisers and others bribed assistant college coaches to steer elite players to them, and a second in which players were allegedly bribed to enroll at schools sponsored by Adidas.
The charges reflect what prosecutors called the “criminal influence of money” on National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball.
“College sports has a history of corruption, but the involvement of coaches is particularly troubling,” said Mark Conrad, a sports law and ethics professor at Fordham University. “It raises questions about the priorities of the so-called ‘power’ schools.”
Among those charged was Chuck Person, a former NBA star who became associate head coach at Auburn University, his alma mater.
College sports has a history of corruption, but the involvement of coaches is particularly troubling.” Mark Conrad, professor of
Other coaches charged are Anthony Bland, from the University of Southern California; Lamont Evans, from Oklahoma State University and formerly the University of South Carolina; and Emanuel Richardson, from the University of Arizona.
“We have no tolerance whatsoever for this alleged behavior,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a statement.
“Coaches hold a unique position of trust with studentathletes and their families and these bribery allegations, if true, suggest an extraordinary and despicable breach of that trust.”
Person, Evans and Richardson were suspended by their respective universities, while USC said it put Bland on leave and hired former FBI director Louis Freeh to conduct an internal probe.
Also charged were James Gatto, director for global sports marketing for basketball at Adidas; Rashan Michel, who runs an Atlanta apparel company; New Jersey money manager Munish Sood; and Christian Dawkins, a former ASM Sports agent who prosecutors said was fired in May.
Prosecutors said Gatto and others funneled $100,000 from Adidas, identified as “Company-1,” to the family of an elite high school prospect so he would play at an Adidassponsored school matching the description of the University of Louisville.
Prosecutors said Person accepted $91,500 in bribes from a financial adviser, who was secretly cooperating with prosecutors, in exchange for steering NBA-worthy Auburn players to hire the adviser and buy suits from Michel.
Court papers describe a secretly recorded meeting at a Manhattan hotel last December where Person told an Auburn player that he knew some of his help was “a violation ... of rules, but this is how the NBA players get it done.”