Federal prosecutors have obtained indictments against 26 people accused of fixing college basketball games in America and professional competitions in China, according to court documents released Thursday in Philadelphia.
Suspects face charges that include allegations corruption in sportconspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and aiding and abetting.
American lawyer David Metcalf said the dozens of defendants “perpetrated a transnational criminal scheme to fix NCAA Division I men’s basketball games as well as Chinese Basketball Federation professional games.”
Among those charged are several former college basketball players: Alberto Laureano, 24; Arlando Arnold, 24; Simeon Cottle, 21 years old; Kevin Cross, 25 years old; Bradley Ezewiro, 23; Shawn Fulcher, 22; Carlos Hart, 23; Markeese Hastings, 25; Hunter Cedquavious, 22; Oumar Koureissi, 24 years old; Da’Sean Nelson, 23; Demond Robinson, 25 years old; Camian Shell, 23; Dyquavion Court, 20; Airion Simmons, 25; Jalen Terry, 24; Corey Hines, 23; Diante Smith, 25; Antonio Blakeney, 29; Isaiah Adams, 24; Micawber Etienne, 24 years old; and Elijah Gray, 22.
Also named in the indictments were coaches Jalen Smith, 30, and Roderick Winkler, 31, as well as “high-stakes sports gamblers” Marves Fairley, 40, and Shane Hennen, 40.
“Integrity of sport” under threat
Metcalf said “the integrity of the sport itself and everything that sport represents to us – hard work, determination and fairness” – were threatened by the defendants.
“We allege a vast international criminal conspiracy of NCAA players, alumni and professional bettors who rigged winnings across the country and poisoned the American spirit of competition for monetary gain,” Metcalf told reporters Thursday.
The Fixers “engaged in a point-scoring scheme involving more than 39 players from more than 17 different NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams who then fixed and attempted to fix more than 29” games for millions of dollars in bets, according to the indictment.
The allegedly rigged games include competitions in China and involved players in the United States who, according to the indictment, manipulated or attempted to manipulate competitions involving Nicholls State, Tulane, Northwestern State, Saint Louis, LaSalle, Fordham, Buffalo, DePaul, Robert Morris, Southern Mississippi, North Carolina A&T, Kennesaw State, Coppin State, New Orleans, Abilene Christian, Eastern Michigan and Alabama State, according to the indictment.
Alleged effort to fix 29 college games in two seasons
The defendants are accused of fixing or attempting to fix the final scores of 29 games in what could be the widest college basketball scandal since the 1951 point-sharing system involving several New York City schoolsaccording to prosecutors.
Prosecutors say the alleged conspiracy began in September 2022 when the defendants began bribing Chinese Basketball Federation players to engage in “point shaving,” when someone is paid to manipulate the final margin of victory of a game and not necessarily the win-loss outcome.
Fairley and Hennen initially targeted Blakeney, who played for the CBA’s Jiangsu Dragons, prosecutors said.
Blakeney, who had played for LSU, “agreed to participate in the program and subsequently recruited other players from Jiangsu,” according to court documents.
The project had its roots in China, according to the prosecutor
In a match on March 6, 2023, the Blakeney Dragons were 11.5 point underdogs against the Guangdong Southern Tigers. Fairley and Hennen bet $198,3000 through BetRivers Sportsbook on the favorites to cover that spread, authorities said.
Blakeney, who averaged 32 points per game that season, scored just 11 in that contest, leading to a 127-96 victory for the Tigers.
“Blakeney underperformed and influenced the game as he and the Fixers agreed,” the indictment states.
The indictment cites other games that Blakeney allegedly fixed in China.
In April 2023, after the CBA season, Fairley “placed a package in Antonio Blakeney’s storage unit in Florida that contained nearly $200,000 in cash, representing bribes and proceeds from CBA match-fixing,” according to the indictment.
The scheme expanded to U.S. college basketball games in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, prosecutors said, because Blakeney allegedly “agreed to recruit NCAA players who would accept bribes,” according to court documents.
Payments “ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 per game” were made to American college players, according to court documents.
The players and games targeted in the alleged scheme tended to be lesser-known programs, although defendants Terry, Nelson and Etienne allegedly pitched for DePaul, a school in the powerful Big East Conference, the indictment says.
The Blue Demons played poorly, by design, in a Feb. 24, 2024, game against Georgetown and accepted more payments to underperform in losses to Butler and St. John’s that benefited the players, the indictment says.
There have been alleged attempts to buy out players from St. Louis, LaSalle and Fordham, members of the Atlantic 10 Conference, generally considered one of the best leagues outside of the traditional powers, the Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC and SEC.
Fixers are ‘highly effective’ but not bulletproof, prosecutors say
The effort to rig a LaSalle-St. The Bonaventure game on Feb. 21, 2024, was one of the project’s few failures, prosecutors said. Fixers offered unnamed LaSalle players “bribes to underperform and influence the first half” of that game, according to the indictment.
The gamblers bet $247,000 on the Bonnies to win the first half by at least 5.5 points, but LaSalle led, 36-28, at intermission, according to the indictment.
It was unclear in the indictment whether the players intentionally refused to underperform or simply failed in their efforts to get the first half going. A spokesperson for Metcalf declined to provide further details.
“Neither the university, current student-athletes, nor staff are subject to the indictment,” LaSalle said in a statement. “We will cooperate fully as necessary with the authorities and with the investigation.”
And in another case of a rare losing bet, gamblers had hoped Gray would scuttle his own Fordham Rams in a Feb. 23, 2024, game against the Duquesne Dukes, who were 3.5-point favorites, according to the indictment. Gray, who averaged 8.4 points per game that season, scored only 3 points that day, but Fordham pulled off a 79-67 upset, according to the indictment.
“I tried,” Gray reportedly said in a text message to one of the alleged ringleaders, Jalen Smith, who was remarkably sympathetic toward the player who failed to fail sufficiently.
“You sure did your job,” Smith texted, according to the indictment.
“There are nine other players on the field, there are coaches and referees,” Metcalf said, according to court documents. “Now in basketball, one player can significantly influence a game. In other sports, that’s not possible. But it’s not a guarantee. But overall, the project was very effective.”
Charlie Baker, president of the NCAA called on gaming companies to end halftime betting and reduce prop bets.
“We appreciate the work of law enforcement to combat integrity issues and game manipulation in college sports,” Baker said in a statement. “The conduct revealed today does not constitute entirely new information to the NCAA.”
Sports gambling is relatively new to the betting scene
The wide-ranging FBI investigation is the latest gambling scandal to rock high-profile American sport.
NBA Companion Terry Rozier was arrested on October 23 and accused of conspiring with gamblers to pass inside betting information.
Cleveland Guardians Pitchers Emmanuel Clasé and Luis Ortiz were arrested in November and accused of working with players bet on individual locations they threw during games.
Sports gambling, once illegal in every state other than Nevada, has been booming since Supreme Court in 2018, a federal law was overturned that required states to ban bet on games.
There is now a form of legalized sports betting 40 states and the District of Columbia.
The proliferation of sports betting and payments to college athletes – for their names, images and likenesses (NIL) – has created an environment that makes match-fixing possible, according to Metcalf.
“I will say that the evidence in this case shows that the monetization of college athletics and athletics in general … favored the company in this case,” said Metcalf, a former Princeton football player.
“But it’s complicated, right? I mean, as we allege in the indictment, some players were targeted because they were somewhat short of zero money.”
Indicted players still present on certain rosters
Most of the players named in the indictment played NCAA Division I basketball and reached eligibility within the past two years. But a few were still playing this week.
Cottle is Kennesaw State’s leading scorer, averaging 20.2 points per game.
“Kennesaw State University is aware of information regarding men’s basketball student-athlete Simeon Cottle and former student-athlete Demond Robinson,” the school said in a statement. “Cottle has been suspended indefinitely from all team activities.”
Hart averaged 13.1 points per game at Eastern Michigan and was suspended from the team, according to a school statement. The alleged conduct occurred before Hart arrived and the school said it was unaware of the investigation when it recruited him.
Shell is on the list of State of Delaware and a representative for the school could not immediately be reached for comment.
Injuries have slowed this season for Koureissi, limiting him to six games for South Texas. He was removed from the team, the school said.
“He played one season for Texas Southern. The activity detailed in the allegations occurred prior to any affiliation with Texas Southern University,” according to a statement from Texas Southern.
Blakeney is included on the list of Hapoel Tel Aviv Basketball Club, an Israeli professional team. A representative for the team could not immediately be reached for comment.
