College coached indictment

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York recently announced that 10 men with ties to college basketball — including four prominent assistant coaches at Power Five schools, and a high-level executive at Adidas — have been indicted in a major scandal involving fraud, bribery, money laundering and corruption.

The filings, which are voluminous, depict two separate schemes wherein: (i) coaches took bribes to push players to certain agents; and (ii) cash allegedly exchanged hands from a major athletic apparel company to top-level recruits. In each scheme, financial planners and agents acting as middle men. The money, according to the filing, was given to recruits and their families with the understanding that those recruits would attend specific schools. Four assistant coaches have been accused of taking bribes in exchange for pushing players to sign with particular agents when those players ultimately turned pro and needed representation. The bribes range from $15,000 to upwards of $100,000.

The indictments appear to have been made after the government obtained scores of taped telephone calls and videos of meetings that were recorded by informants who themselves have shaky pasts. The arrests show that the FBI has the playbook of these financial planners, college coaches and apparel companies.