Date: 09-26-2017
College basketball scandal: What we know about University of Louisville’s apparent involvement
The University of Louisville appears to be caught up in a major FBI investigation revealed Tuesday that has rocked the college basketball world. Here are some key points:
What do we know?
In a stunning criminal complaint, at least 10 people, including four assistant men’s college basketball coaches and apparel company senior executives, are facing federal bribery, fraud and other corruption charges related to paying the families of NCAA recruits to attend specific schools.
The criminal complaints were unsealed Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Who are the coaches and the apparel company officials?
The people named across the three separate complaints are Chuck Person, an assistant coach at Auburn; Lamont Evans, an assistant at Oklahoma State; Emanuel Richardson, an assistant at Arizona; and Tony Bland, an assistant at the University of Southern California.
It also names James Gatto, who is only identified as the head of global sports marketing with a sports company. Gatto works for Adidas, according to his professional profile pages.
According to the FBI complaints made public, the four coaches involved are Auburn assistant Chuck Person, Southern California assistant Tony Bland, Arizona assistant Emanuel Richardson and Oklahoma State assistant Lamont Evans. USA TODAY Sports
Why are people saying the University of Louisville is involved?
According to the complaint, “University-6” is a public research university in Kentucky. The federal charges say it has approximately 22,640 students and more than 7,000 faculty and staff members. It is “one of the state’s largest universities” with approximately 21 varsity sports teams in NCAA Division I competition.
According to the University of Louisville’s website, it has a student headcount of 22,640. The University of Kentucky, which is the only other public research university in the state, has an enrollment of roughly 29,000 students, according to its website.
Who is Player-10?
The U.S. attorney’s complaint says “Player-10” on or about June 3 committed to University-6.
On June 2, the Courier-Journal reported that McDonald’s All-American Brian Bowen was enrolling at U of L. Bowen later tweeted his commitment on June 3.
According to the complaint, “Player-10” came to “University-6” in return for Gatto, his company and others working to funnel $100,000 to the family of “Player-10” and to sign with Gatto’s company once “Player-10” made it to the NBA.
Who is Player-11?
A second basketball player, identified only as “Player-11” was described as a 2019 recruit for “University-6.” His family was to receive monthly payments.
Are any U of L coaches indicted?
The U.S. attorney’s criminal complaint doesn’t name any U of L personnel directly. It does, however, note that “others known and unknown, including basketball coaches employed by University-6” participated in the scheme to defraud, by telephone, email, and wire transfers of funds.
It highlights two coaches from “University-6,” identified only as “Coach-1” and “Coach-2.”
The charges say “Coach-1” is on an FBI video recording inside of a Las Vegas hotel room.
According to the complaint, that person, who is identified as an assistant coach, agreed that University-6 was already on probation with the NCAA. It goes on to say that the assistant coach also agreed that they needed to be particularly careful with how they passed money to “Player-11.”
“Coach-1” said, “we gotta be very low key.” According to the complaint, “Coach-1″ also describes another University-6 coach as so influential “that all (Coach-2 has to do) is pick up the phone and call somebody, (and say) these are my guys, they’re taking care of us.”
By Phillip M. Bailey
The Courier-Journal
