Money funneled through middlemen
The covert investigation — which Kim says even the NCAA was unaware of until Tuesday morning — started in 2015, according to court documents.
In a statement released late Tuesday afternoon, NCAA President Mark Emmert called the allegations “deeply disturbing.”
“Coaches hold a unique position of trust with student-athletes and their families and these bribery allegations, if true, suggest an extraordinary and despicable breach of that trust,” Emmert said, adding that the NCAA would support the ongoing criminal investigation.
The details of the federal filings are staggering.
The U.S. attorney’s office flipped a financial adviser facing fraud charges and then placed two undercover agents who posed as associates. Wiretaps and videos followed from there.
The documents detail alleged handshake deals and agreements like the one between James Gatto, director of global sports marketing at Adidas; Munish Sood, a financial planner; and agent Christian Dawkins.
The three “conspired to illicitly funnel approximately $100,000” to assist one or more coaches at a university and to further ensure that the player ultimately retained the services of Dawkins and Sood and signed with a company upon entering the NBA, according to the documents.
Kim declined to name specific companies, schools, athletes or coaches referenced in the documents. Kim also said there are “no allegations of administrators participating in the bribery” at either schools or athletic apparel companies.
Louisville confirmed Tuesday it is one of the schools under investigation, and the four assistants accused of wrongdoing have been suspended by their respective schools.
It’s clear from the documents that handlers wanted to remain as under-the-radar as possible.
Noting that a university was already on probation with the NCAA, Dawkins indicated that they would have be particularly careful with how they passed money to a player and his family. The coach agreed, stating, ‘ We gotta be very low key,’ according to the documents.
The others named in the court documents are Merl Code, who recently left Nike for Adidas; Jonathan Brad Augustine, president of The League Initiative and program director of the Adidassponsored 1 Family AAU program; and Rashan Michel, a former NBA official who founded Thompson Bespoke Clothing line. Dawkins recently was fired from ASM Sports for allegedly charging approximately $42,000 in Uber charges on a player’s credit card.
Kim described the middlemen and financial advisers who preyed on talented young athletes as “circling blue chip prospects like coyotes.”