FBI arrests "several NCAA assistant basketball coaches"

Well, do we want to burn down the NCAA or don't we? Maybe this is the beginning of that.

 

This glacial Aussie driveway gunner is the only recruit willing to play for a program that's been a 1 seed twice in the last four years. YOU LOOK TONY BENNETT IN THE EYE AND TELL HIM IT'S A VICTIMLESS CRIME.

 

Well, here's the thing ... one of the agents involved had been sanctioned for charging $42,000 in Uber rides to one of his clients' credit cards. That same agent paid Chuck Person to steer Austin Wiley to him when he turned pro. So maybe there's one (potential) victim.

 

Who's the victim in that scenario? The client? What if the client is part of the recruitment?

 

I don't get it. What player has a $42k limit on his credit card?

How many rides does it take to rack up $42k in Uber charges?

 

Doesn't matter why the FBI and the Feds are involved now. They are. And this should be making the coach of every revenue-producing sport in college reaching for the Pepto-Bismal. It's no longer an issue of trying to fool the NCAA any longer. You pay a kid or his family and you may go to Federal pound me in the ass prison.

 

Rick Pitino better be dusting off his best "I didn't know" excuses. This might be the end of him. From espn.com:

"The FBI complaint against Gatto and others also includes a reference to a "public research university located in Kentucky," and sources told ESPN that it's the University of Louisville. The complaint says the school has an enrollment of approximately 22,640, which matches Louisville's during the 2016-17 academic year, and that the school offers approximately 21 varsity sports teams, which is the number the Cardinals offer, according to the athletics department's website.

The allegations against the unnamed school in Kentucky, which is identified as "University-6" in the complaint, include payments of $100,000 from a sports apparel company to the family of an unnamed player, identified as "Player 10," to ensure him signing with the school.

In a sworn statement from FBI agent John Vourderis, he wrote: "I have learned that in or around May of 2017, at the request of at least once coach from University-6, Dawkins, James Gatto, a/k/a "Jim," Merl Code, Munish Sood, the defendants, and other agreed to funnel $100,000 (payable in four installments) from Company-1 to the family of Player-10. Shortly after the agreement with the family of Player-10 was reached in late May or early June, Player-10 publicly committed to University-6."

The indictment also says that prior to paying Player-10's family, the defendants "first needed time to generate a sham purchase order and invoice ostensibly to justify using Company-1 funds since they could not lawfully pay the family of Player-10 directly and risk that such prohibited payments be revealed."

A University of Louisville athletics department spokesperson said the school was unaware of the investigation until Tuesday and didn't yet have a statement. High-ranking members of the Louisville athletics department were meeting on Tuesday morning."

 

Cleveland State and Long Beach State are now very worried.

I know its an old cliched joke on this board, but feds or not, I will yawn until I see big boys actually taken down.

 

You're not aware that there are credit cards with no limit if you make enough money?

But here are the details:

Sports agent fired after running up $42,000 in Uber charges on NBA player’s credit card

 

This actually came up on another thread a while back. A popular agent trick is to tell a college player to go to his bank and apply for a credit card. The bank will give him a card with a high limit so the player has spending money in college, then the agent pays it off once the kid is out of school and signs with him.