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Federal prosecutors charged 26 people in an alleged point-shaving scheme involving dozens of college basketball players, authorities announced Thursday.
U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said the scheme involved 39 players and 17 different NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams, and alleged the conspiracy either fixed or attempted to fix 29 games.
“This was a massive scheme,” Metcalf told reporters during a news conference in Philadelphia. “It enveloped the world of college basketball.”
According to the indictment unsealed Thursday, players were allegedly bribed to tank games to enrich sports gamblers.
“This was a significant and rampant corruption of college athletics,” Metcalf said.
Some alleged attempts to fix games were unsuccessful for various reasons, including players who didn’t cooperate with the scheme or others who failed to make games go a certain way, Metcalf said.
“In basketball, one player could substantially influence a game in ways that in other sports you cannot, but it’s not a guarantee,” Metcalf said. “But by and large, the scheme was very successful.”
The allegations cover a period between September 2022 and February 2025. The indictment also includes allegations of influencing or fixing Chinese Basketball Association men’s basketball games.
Some of the people allegedly involved in the scheme were former college players who are accused of bribing current college players to shave points on games so bettors could capitalize.
Metcalf said the bribes could range between $10,000 and $30,000 per game. The people behind the alleged scheme are accused of finding games in which a corrupted player was on a team that was favored to lose and then bribing the player to deliberately underperform during the game and not cover the point spread, Metcalf said.
“For example, if a team was favored to lose by 4 points, the player would receive a bribe to underperform so that his team would lose by more than that,” Metcalf said at a news conference announcing the charges in Philadelphia.
Games involving the following teams were allegedly rigged or impacted, investigators say: Abilene Christian, Alabama State, Butler, DePaul, Duquesne, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Fordham, Georgetown, Kennesaw State, Kent State, La Salle, McNeese State, Nicholls State, Ohio University, St. Louis University, St. John’s, SUNY Buffalo, Tulane and Western Michigan University.
“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.
Tulane said in a statement it would cooperate with authorities “where appropriate” after Kevin Cross, a former forward for the school, was charged in the indictment. Cross was accused of taking a bribe of approximately $30,000 to keep Tulane from covering the spread in a 2024 game against East Carolina. Cross was also accused of discussing an attempt to fix a game later that year against Florida Atlantic, but the attempted fix wasn’t successful, according to the indictment.
Ohio University said that none of its players, coaches and staff were involved in the alleged scheme. According to the indictment, people involved in the scheme allegedly wanted SUNY Buffalo players to ensure that their team didn’t cover the point spread for the first half of a game against Ohio in 2024.
Brian Browne, a St. John’s spokesperson, said in a statement provided to CBS News that neither the school or any of its current or former players were “cited for wrongdoing in the indictment unsealed today.”
Kent State also said that it appeared in the indictment because of allegations made against another team. According to the indictment, SUNY Buffalo players attempted but ultimately failed to prevent their team from beating the spread in the first half of a 2024 game against Kent State.
DePaul and La Salle said that none of their current players were named in the indictment and that the schools would cooperate with the investigation.
The scheme initially unfolded when former Chicago Bulls player Antonio Blakeney allegedly colluded with professional sports bettors Marvis Fairley and Shane Hennen to fix Chinese Basketball Association games, Metcalf said.
“The scheme proved lucrative,” Metcalf said. “Mr. Hennen, we allege, texted a confederate that the only things certain in life were ‘death, taxes and Chinese basketball.’”
The scheme was then moved to the U.S., where other people were brought into the fold as it focused on recruiting NCAA players.
“They picked these men because they were well connected in the world of college basketball,” Metcalf said. “They knew the players, many of them were players themselves, they were alumni, they were trainers, they were recruiters, they were networkers, they were people of influence, and because of that influence, they added gravitas and legitimacy to the scheme.”
NCAA President Charlie Baker responded to the newly revealed allegations by saying that the organization has finished or opened investigations into almost all of the teams named.
“The pattern of college basketball game integrity conduct revealed by law enforcement today is not entirely new information to the NCAA,” Baker said in a statement.
The announcement comes less than three months after NBA mainstays Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier and Damon Jones were among dozens of people arrested in a sweeping FBI crackdown on alleged illegal gambling rings.
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