Federal prosecutors secured indictments against 26 people accused of rigging college basketball games in America and pro contests in China, according to court papers unsealed Thursday in Philadelphia.
The suspects face charges that include alleged bribery in sports, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aiding and abetting.
U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said the dozens accused “perpetrated a transnational criminal scheme to fix NCAA Division I men’s basketball games as well as professional Chinese Basketball Association games.”
Those charged include several former college basketball players: Alberto Laureano, 24; Arlando Arnold, 24; Simeon Cottle, 21; Kevin Cross, 25; Bradley Ezewiro, 23; Shawn Fulcher, 22; Carlos Hart, 23; Markeese Hastings, 25; Cedquavious Hunter, 22; Oumar Koureissi, 24; Da'Sean Nelson, 23; Demond Robinson, 25; Camian Shell, 23; Dyquavion Short, 20; Airion Simmons, 25; Jalen Terry, 24; Corey Hines, 23; Diante Smith, 25; Antonio Blakeney, 29; Isaiah Adams, 24; Micawber Etienne, 24; and Elijah Gray, 22.
Trainers Jalen Smith, 30, and Roderick Winkler, 31, and “high-stakes sports gamblers” Marves Fairley, 40, and Shane Hennen, 40, were also named in the indictments.
The 'integrity of sport' under threat
Metcalf said "the integrity of sport itself and everything that sports represent to us — hard work, determination and fairness" — were threatened by the defendants.
"We allege an extensive international criminal conspiracy of NCAA players, alumni and professional bettors who fixed gains across the country and poisoned the American spirit of competition for monetary gain," Metcalf told reporters Thursday.
Fixers “engaged in a point-shaving scheme involving more than 39 players on 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 fixed games include contests in China and involved players in the U.S. who, the indictment said, manipulated or tried to manipulate contests 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 trying to fix the final scores of 29 games in what could be the most sweeping college basketball scandal since the 1951 point-shaving scheme involving several New York City schools, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors say the alleged conspiracy began in September 2022 when the defendants started to bribe players in the Chinese Basketball Association to engage in “point shaving,” when someone is paid to manipulate a game’s final margin of victory and not necessarily the win-loss outcome.
Fairley and Hennen initially targeted Blakeney, who was playing for the CBA’s Jiangsu Dragons, prosecutors said.
Blakeney, who had played for LSU, “agreed to participate in the scheme and then recruited other players from Jiangsu,” according to court papers.
Scheme had roots in China, prosecutor says
In a March 6, 2023, game, Blakeney’s Dragons were 11.5-point underdogs to the Guangdong Southern Tigers. Fairley and Hennen bet $198,3000 via 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 spread-covering win for the Tigers.
“Blakeney underperformed in and influenced the game as he and the fixers had agreed,” the indictment said.
The indictment cited other games Blakeney is alleged to have fixed in China.
In April 2023, after the CBA season, Fairley “placed a package into Antonio Blakeney’s storage unit in Florida, which contained nearly $200,000 in cash, representing bribe payments and proceeds from the fixed CBA games,” according to the indictment.
The scheme moved to U.S. college basketball games during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, prosecutors said, as Blakeney is alleged to have “agreed to recruit NCAA players who would accept bribe payments,” court papers said.
Payments “ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 per game” were made to the American college players, court documents said.
The players and the games targeted in the alleged scheme tended to be at lesser-known programs, though defendants Terry, Nelson and Etienne are alleged to have taken dives for DePaul, a school in the powerful Big East Conference, the indictment said.
The Blue Demons played poorly by design in a Feb. 24, 2024, game against Georgetown and accepted more payments to underperform in losses against Butler and St. John's that benefited gamblers, the indictment said.
There were alleged attempts to buy off players from Saint Louis, LaSalle and Fordham, members of the Atlantic 10 Conference, generally considered one of the best leagues outside the traditional powerhouses, the Big East, the Big 12, the Big Ten, the ACC and the SEC.
Fixers 'very successful' but not bulletproof, prosecutors said
The effort to rig a LaSalle-St. Bonaventure game on Feb. 21, 2024, was among the few failures of the scheme, prosecutors said. The fixers offered unnamed LaSalle players "bribe payments to underperform in 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 was on top, 36-28, at intermission, according to the indictment.
It wasn't clear in the indictment whether players refused to intentionally underperform or just failed in efforts to throw the first half. A spokesperson for Metcalf declined to elaborate.
"Neither the university, current student-athletes, or staff are subjects of the indictment," LaSalle said in a statement. "We will fully cooperate as needed with officials and the investigation."
And in another instance 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, the indictment said. Gray, who averaged 8.4 points per game that season, scored just 3 points that day, but Fordham pulled off a 79-67 upset, according the indictment.
"I tried," Gray is alleged to have said in a text message to one of the alleged ringleaders, Jalen Smith, who was remarkably sympathetic to the player who failed to fail enough.
"You did your job for sure," Smith texted, according to the indictment.
"There's nine other players on the court, there's coaches and there's referees," Metcalf said, according to court papers. "Now in basketball, one player could substantially influence a game in ways. In other sports, you cannot. But it's not a guarantee. But by and large, the scheme was very successful."
NCAA President Charlie Baker called for gaming companies to end halftime wagers and cut back on prop bets.
"We appreciate law enforcement's work to combat integrity issues and match manipulation in college sports," Baker said in a statement. "The conduct revealed today is not entirely new information to the NCAA."
Sports gambling relatively new to betting stage
The sweeping FBI investigation is the latest gambling scandal to rock high-level U.S. sports.
NBA journeyman Terry Rozier was arrested Oct. 23 and accused of conspiring with gamblers to pass on insider knowledge for wagers.
Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were arrested in November and accused of working with gamblers to bet on individual pitches they threw during games.
Sports gambling, once illegal in every state other than Nevada, has been taking off since the Supreme Court in 2018 struck down a federal law that required states to ban betting on games.
Now there’s some form of legalized sports betting in 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 made 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 generally ... furthered the enterprise in this case," said Metcalf, a former Princeton soccer player.
"But it's complicated, right? I mean, as we allege in the indictment, certain players were targeted because they were somewhat missing out on NIL money."
Indicted players still on some rosters
Most of the players named in the indictment played NCAA Division I basketball and completed their eligibility in the past year or two. But a handful were still playing this week.
Cottle is the leading scorer for Kennesaw State, averaging 20.2 points per game.
"Kennesaw State University is aware of the reports involving 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 is averaging 13.1 points per game at Eastern Michigan and has been suspended from the team, according to a school statement. The alleged conduct happened before Hart arrived, and the school said it was not aware of the probe when it recruited him.
Shell is on the roster of Delaware State and a rep for the school could not be immediately reached for comment.
Injuries slowed this season for Koureissi, limiting him to six games for Texas Southern. He's been 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 Texas Southern statement.
Blakeney is listed on the roster of Hapoel Tel Aviv Basketball Club, an Israeli pro team. A representative for the team could not immediately be reached for comment.
