Exclusive: Federal documents detail sweeping potential NCAA violations involving high-profile players, schools

[Harry]

Documents and bank records obtained in discovery during the federal investigation into the underbelly of college basketball detail in meticulous fashion the expenditures of prominent former NBA agent Andy Miller, his former associate Christian Dawkins and his agency, ASM Sports. They include expense reports and balance sheets that list cash advances, as well as entertainment and travel expenses for high school and college prospects and their families.

Yahoo Sports viewed hundreds of pages of documents from the years-long probe that had federal authorities monitoring multiple targets and intercepting more than 4,000 calls across 330 days, providing a clear-eyed view into the pervasive nature of the game’s underground economy.

While three criminal cases tied to the investigation may take years to play out, the documents viewed by Yahoo revealed the extent of the potential NCAA ramifications from the case. The documents show an underground recruiting operation that could create NCAA rules issues – both current and retroactive – for at least 20 Division I basketball programs and more than 25 players.

The documents tie some of the biggest names and programs in the sport to activity that appears to violate the NCAA’s amateurism rules. This could end up casting a pall over the NCAA tournament because of eligibility issues. There’s potential impermissible benefits and preferential treatment for players and families of players at Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC, Alabama and a host of other schools. The documents link some of the sport’s biggest current stars – Michigan State’s Miles Bridges, Alabama’s Collin Sexton and Duke’s Wendell Carter – to specific potential extra benefits for either the athletes or their family members. The amounts tied to players in the case range from basic meals to tens of thousands of dollars.

NCAA president Mark Emmert released a statement Friday morning to address the latest developments in the corruption probe.

“These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules,” the statement read. “Following the Southern District of New York’s indictments last year, the NCAA Board of Governors and I formed the independent Commission on College Basketball, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, to provide recommendations on how to clean up the sport. With these latest allegations, it’s clear this work is more important now than ever. The Board and I are completely committed to making transformational changes to the game and ensuring all involved in college basketball do so with integrity. We also will continue to cooperate with the efforts of federal prosecutors to identify and punish the unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the system through criminal acts.”

read more:  https://sports.yahoo.com/exclusive-federal-documents-detail-sweeping-potential-ncaa-violations-involving-high-profile-players-schools-103338484.html

[oldguystudent]

Why on God's green earth would those accountants have such blatant receivables on their books?  

[Ben Gooding]

These will be wrist slaps. The NCAA is spineless. 

[forevereagle]

5 minutes ago, Ben Gooding said:

These will be wrist slaps. The NCAA is spineless. 

That may be the case for the NCAA, but the FBI may not be so kind.

[oldguystudent]

7 minutes ago, forevereagle said:

That may be the case for the NCAA, but the FBI may not be so kind.

Explain to me what laws were broken.  I don't understand a lot about how skirting NCAA rules translates to federal investigations. 

I'm not trying to oppose you.  I truly don't understand how these things work. 

[forevereagle]

3 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

Explain to me what laws were broken.  I don't understand a lot about how skirting NCAA rules translates to federal investigations. 

I'm not trying to oppose you.  I truly don't understand how these things work. 

Honestly, I am not sure. My understanding that it is a corruption investigation. I really don't know how the law was broken either, but they have been investigating for awhile, so I assume they have something in mind.

[GreenN'walinsVet]

4 hours ago, oldguystudent said:

Explain to me what laws were broken.  I don't understand a lot about how skirting NCAA rules translates to federal investigations. 

I'm not trying to oppose you.  I truly don't understand how these things work. 

Would Tax Evasion not apply?  

[oldguystudent]

4 minutes ago, GreenN'walinsVet said:

Would Tax Evasion not apply?  

I like it.  That would work. 

[MeanGreenTexan]

4 hours ago, oldguystudent said:

Explain to me what laws were broken.  I don't understand a lot about how skirting NCAA rules translates to federal investigations. 

I'm not trying to oppose you.  I truly don't understand how these things work. 

I wonder if a player signs something within their LOI that in order to receive scholarship funds, they must promise not to take other funds...?  Thus entering into a contract?

[oldguystudent]

1 minute ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

I wonder if a player signs something within their LOI that in order to receive scholarship funds, they must promise not to take other funds...?  Thus entering into a contract?

That would be civil, not criminal though. 

[MeanGreenTexan]

3 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

That would be civil, not criminal though. 

True.  It would also target the players themselves, and not the Schools they attend.    Nevermind.  I have no idea.

[GrandGreen]

7 hours ago, oldguystudent said:

Why on God's green earth would those accountants have such blatant receivables on their books?  

Maybe because they were financial transactions. 

[oldguystudent]

1 hour ago, GrandGreen said:

Maybe because they were financial transactions. 

I mean, I could probably argue minutiae with you on this, but I can foresee it would be fruitless.  Yes.  You are absolutely correct. 

[Harry]

 

 

 

[MGN_BBallReport]

6 minutes ago, Harry said:

 

 

 

Not surprised at all. I think anyone following CB felt like Miller was going down. 

[TreeFiddy]

Here is an excerpt of an ESPN article discussing the charges for one of the Arizona assistant coaches(Richardson) that was arrested earlier in the year.  It should give you an idea of the types of charges these guys are facing.

...

Richardson is charged with six felonies: conspiracy to commit bribery, solicitation of bribes by an agent of a federally funded organization, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, mail fraud conspiracy and travel act conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 60 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines.

[oldguystudent]

8 hours ago, TreeFiddy said:

Richardson is charged with six felonies: conspiracy to commit bribery, solicitation of bribes by an agent of a federally funded organization, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, mail fraud conspiracy and travel act conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 60 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines.

There it is.  Whoa. I'm still fascinated that the FBI even cares about this, but those are some pretty rough sounding charges. 

[TIgreen01]

If this stuff doesn't bring about sweeping changes.... Will anything ever??

[oldguystudent]

18 minutes ago, TIgreen01 said:

If this stuff doesn't bring about sweeping changes.... Will anything ever??

So long as billions of people continue to watch March Madness, probably not. 

[southsideguy]

The NCAA I am sure could not find any wrong doing.  They couldn't figure out UNC had/has a problem.

[DeepGreen]

The “whorns” are benching one of their players because of this investigation.  Stay tuned.

[Texas Stranger]

On 2/23/2018 at 2:29 PM, GreenN'walinsVet said:

Would Tax Evasion not apply?  

Ding.  Forgiven or charged off loans are taxable income to the debtor.