A massive federal basketball point-shaving indictment has Louisiana ties. 20 men, including 12 former and four current college basketball players, are indicted in the scheme to rig basketball games for profit. Of those players indicted, six played for a Louisiana program at one point. The indictment was unsealed this morning in Philadelphia and announced by David Metcalf, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
“We allege an extensive international criminal conspiracy of NCAA players, alumni, and professional bettors who fixed games across the country and poisoned the American spirit of competition for monetary gain,” Metcalf said.
Metcalf says this scheme went on for years and it involved several programs.
“This was a scheme that spanned three years, and eventually enveloped 17 NCAA Division I Men’s Programs, dozens of college athletes and fixed games,” Metcalf noted.
Four Louisiana programs are among the 17 programs involved – New Orleans, Tulane, Nicholls and Northwestern State. Metcalf says it started when gamblers Marves Fairley and Shane Hennen conspired with former LSU star Antonio Blakeney, who was playing professionally in China at the time, to fix professional games in China; and when those proved to be profitable, they moved the operation stateside and into the world of college basketball.
“Mr. Fairley, Mr. Hennen, and these other leaders would bribe NCAA basketball players to the tune of $10,000 to $30,000 per game. The player would then agree to deliberately underperform in the game,” Metcalf explained.
And those intentional sub-par performances would cause their teams to lose by a margin greater than the point spread. Blakeney was not named in the indictment but was indicted elsewhere.
Players named in the indictment:
Bradley Ezewiro (LSU)
Kevin Cross (Tulane)
Oumar Koureissi (Nicholls)
Carlos Hart (New Orleans)
Cedquavious Hunter (New Orleans)
Dyquavion Short (New Orleans)
Alberto Laureano
Arlando Arnold
Simeon Cottle
Shawn Fulcher
Markeese Hastings
Da’Sean Nelson
Demond Robinson
Camian Shell
Airion Simmons
Jalen Terry
Trainers named:
Jalen Smith
Roderick Winkler
High-stakes sports gamblers named:
Marves Fairley
Shane Hennen
Players not named in the indictment:
Antonio Blakeney (LSU)
Diante Smith (Nicholls)
Teams involved:
Tulane
New Orleans
Nicholls
Northwestern State
Saint Louis
LaSalle
Fordham
Buffalo
DePaul
Robert Morris
Southern Miss
North Carolina A&T
Kennesaw State
Coppin State
Abilene Christian
Eastern Michigan
Alabama State