Four assistant college basketball coaches are among 10 people arrested on federal charges as the result of a wide-sweeping bribery and corruption investigation carried out by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
The coaches—Emanuel Richardson of Arizona, Chuck Person of Auburn, Lamont Evans of Oklahoma State, and Tony Bland of USC—are accused of taking bribes to steer student athletes toward specific agents, financial advisers, and even a clothier, and in some cases arranging for payments to families for their sons to commit to a certain university. Three of the men arrested work for or have ties to Adidas, including James Gatto, the company’s director of global sports marketing.
“By accepting bribes in this way, these four coaches not only breached their obligations to their schools, violated NCAA rules, and betrayed the trust of their players, they also committed serious federal crimes, as did the managers and advisers who paid them,” said Joon Kim, the acting U.S. attorney in the district.
Kim described the investigation as uncovering “two different but related schemes,” and the second scheme could end up being even bigger news because the complaint describes a “public research university located in Kentucky.” (Translation: Louisville.) ESPN reports:
Meanwhile, the complaint’s “University-7” is described as a “private research university located in Florida” which has a student body of 16,000 and a faculty of 2,600. The University of Miami, which has a contract with Adidas, fits that description.
Chuck Person starred at Auburn before a 14-year NBA career with the Pacers, Timberwolves, Spurs, and others. He was an assistant coach for several NBA teams before joining Bruce Pearl in Auburn in 2014. Perhaps for that reason, Person is garnering the most attention among the coaches who were arrested.
Sports Illustrated reports:
Kim said in his press conference that the NCAA was only made aware of the investigation on Tuesday.
