Arrests coming due to college bball kickbacks

[Milwaukee]

The thing I don't understand is how is it a gov't investigation? Wouldn't the paying of players just be an NCAA issue or is there something that happened that cause the FBI to step in?

Wire fraud is what I heard on Twitter, so take it with a grain of salt. The feds have hard-ons for stuff like wire fraud, money laundering, etc. Essentially the manner in which they were moving the money is what got the feds all riled up.

This thing sounds really big and really bad.

 

[RamblinRed]

Chason,

it started because a Pittsburgh Financial Planner got entangled with the SEC (not the conference). in order to try to get reduced time he offered to get the FBI in illegal stuff going on in college basketball recruiting.

Basically, hiding payments, taking bribes to steer individuals to specific agents and planners, falsifying federal documents that schools have to fill out for financial aid.

The interesting note is from a legal standpoint the HC's and schools are not on the hook, but once the NCAA receives this info, there are alot of NCAA violations here.

 

[dtm1997]

Somebody made a great point. The gov't got in because there was fraud at schools that take federal money, which one way or another, is pretty much every school.

 

[YlJacket]

Couple of small violations of law

Bribery to induce athletes to sign contracts with agents, financial planners, shoe companies, etc.

fraud to knowingly induce athletes to sign at public universities for providing athletic services they know them to be ineligible for due to having violated NCAA rules.

Likely tax evasion and potentially money laundering given the sums being bantered about. Probably some more as I haven't read all the articles.

 

[Peacone36]

Coaches at USC, Arizona, Oklahoma State, and Auburn were arrested. The head of global marketing at Adidas was arrested. The papers have unnamed schools and people who were deciphered to be Louisville with regard to Brian Bowen, and Miami with regard to Nassir Little.

Pump the brakes.....
It’s unconfirmed it’s Nas whereas Bowen is cut and dry.

 

[RonJohn]

Chason,

it started because a Pittsburgh Financial Planner got entangled with the SEC (not the conference). in order to try to get reduced time he offered to get the FBI in illegal stuff going on in college basketball recruiting.

Basically, hiding payments, taking bribes to steer individuals to specific agents and planners, falsifying federal documents that schools have to fill out for financial aid.

The interesting note is from a legal standpoint the HC's and schools are not on the hook, but once the NCAA receives this info, there are alot of NCAA violations here.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/arti...-ncaa-s-dirty-work-in-college-basketball-case

Not exactly. The "bribes" were to coaches to steer individuals to sign with agents and planners. If we weren't talking about college basketball those payments could be called "finders fees". The falsified documents were not federal financial aid forms, they were NCAA compliance forms. It isn't illegal to falsely claim to the NCAA that you haven't paid players. The fraud was paying players when that knowingly made them ineligible to receive scholarships that the schools gave to them. The "hidden payments" were payments to the players.

I have seen a lot or reports that talk about how seedy BB recruiting is. I have seen descriptions of NCAA violations. I haven't seen anything that I could reasonably describe as criminal. Immoral and unethical certainly.

 

[RonJohn]

Pump the brakes.....
It’s unconfirmed it’s Nas whereas Bowen is cut and dry.

Several "news" organizations have arrived at that conclusion.

 

[Peacone36]

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/arti...-ncaa-s-dirty-work-in-college-basketball-case

Not exactly. The "bribes" were to coaches to steer individuals to sign with agents and planners. If we weren't talking about college basketball those payments could be called "finders fees". The falsified documents were not federal financial aid forms, they were NCAA compliance forms. It isn't illegal to falsely claim to the NCAA that you haven't paid players. The fraud was paying players when that knowingly made them ineligible to receive scholarships that the schools gave to them. The "hidden payments" were payments to the players.

I have seen a lot or reports that talk about how seedy BB recruiting is. I have seen descriptions of NCAA violations. I haven't seen anything that I could reasonably describe as criminal. Immoral and unethical certainly.

That is really interesting. Aren’t you still defrauding an institution of the state by lying on a compliance form though?

 

[ChasonBaller]

Thanks for all the great info.
So basically it was how they cheated, not that they cheated.
Why not skip all the wire stuff and go USC on em and dump a money truck at the front door? Lol

 

[RonJohn]

That is really interesting. Aren’t you still defrauding an institution of the state by lying on a compliance form though?

The forms aren't institution forms, they are NCAA forms. If the school is private, like Miami, even institution forms wouldn't be government institution forms. Even if it were a State school form, it wouldn't be a potential federal crime, it would be a State crime.

 

[RonJohn]

That is really interesting. Aren’t you still defrauding an institution of the state by lying on a compliance form though?

Another thing about the fraud charges. The way they are stated in the indictments: If a booster pays a player, they are committing the same fraud. If the booster crosses state lines in order to make the payment, then it would be within the FBI's jurisdiction to investigate and forward to federal prosecutors to file charges. These are all NCAA amateurism issues, not law enforcement issues.

 

[Peacone36]

Another thing about the fraud charges. The way they are stated in the indictments: If a booster pays a player, they are committing the same fraud. If the booster crosses state lines in order to make the payment, then it would be within the FBI's jurisdiction to investigate and forward to federal prosecutors to file charges. These are all NCAA amateurism issues, not law enforcement issues.

It would become a law enforcement issue in Chuck Persons case since he wired funds to a families account though? Or not because it’s not technically illegal to pay recruits, only an NCAA rule?

 

[RonJohn]

It would become a law enforcement issue in Chuck Persons case since he wired funds to a families account though? Or not because it’s not technically illegal to pay recruits, only an NCAA rule?

The Gatto indictment said that the payments to players was illegal because he knew that they would be ineligible to play, yet he allowed schools to provide a scholarship to the athletes. Thus he defrauded the shools. In general it isn't illegal to give people money.

In Georgia, it is illegal to give anything to a college athlete that would compromise his eligibility. That was passed because of Todd Gurley. So in effect in Georgia, if you see someone with a car out of gas and you drive him to a gas station, you would be committing a felony if that person is an NCAA scholarship athlete. Stupid mutt fans in the state legislature made it a felony to be a good samaritan.

 

[Peacone36]

Incredible

 

[orientalnc]

In Georgia, it is illegal to give anything to a college athlete that would compromise his eligibility. That was passed because of Todd Gurley. So in effect in Georgia, if you see someone with a car out of gas and you drive him to a gas station, you would be committing a felony if that person is an NCAA scholarship athlete. Stupid mutt fans in the state legislature made it a felony to be a good samaritan.

NC has a similar law. It is a felony to give something of value to an NCAA athlete, or potential athlete, that would compromise their eligibility. Stopping to help a stranded motorist would not be illegal unless you knew the motorist was a scholarship athlete and would not have stopped to help other motorists who were not scholarship athletes.

 

[RonJohn]

Stopping to help a stranded motorist would not be illegal unless you knew the motorist was a scholarship athlete and would not have stopped to help other motorists who were not scholarship athletes.

If you have a zealous prosecutor, as it appears there are in this case: They could put friends on the stand who say you are an avid sports fan and pay attention to this athletes school's teams. They could put enemies on the stand who would say that you would never stop to help a frail old lady with her car. It would then be up to you to prove that you didn't know that this person was an athlete, or that you would indeed stop to help similar motorists even if they weren't athletes.

In general laws, and especially federal laws are intentionally vague. There was an article several years ago in the Wall Street Journal that basically said that IF a federal prosecutor took an interest in any person in the country, that they could put together some set of facts that would violate a federal law. I feel as though that is what has happened in this case. The facts, although seedy and immoral, don't actually fit a violation of law. However, the prosecutors have cobbled together several things in order to present it as a fraud and bribery case.

 

[lauraee]

http://www.fromthisseat.com/index.p...liam-worldwide-wes-wesley-cheating-the-system

kept seeing the name world wide wes on cuse board today in regards to today's scandal, so had to look him up. interesting article on 1 more shady character.

 

[CuseJacket]

The moment we've all been waiting for... Mark Fox finally weighs in
AJC: UGA’s Fox ‘not surprised’ at FBI arrests related to corruption in recruiting

“I’m not surprised,” Fox said. “It confirms what we probably already felt like was happening in our game.”

Fox is entering his ninth season as Georgia’s head coach. He has been criticized in the past for not recruiting well enough, and not “playing the game,” as the saying goes.

So, on the surface he may have gained some job security today, which is at least one positive as a GT fan.

 

[Tech93]

One question would be did the Adidas executive use 150K of the company's money or his money to direct the payments?

 

[ATL1]

Well we know GT wasn't in the game. Russell athletics