Numerous players indicted for fixing basketball games in scandal

At least 20 people allegedly colluded with players known to fix basketball games, according to a federal indictment filed Thursday.

The indictment filed in Philadelphia cites charges of “sports corruption” and conspiracy to commit wire fraud to fix Chinese men’s college and professional basketball games.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced a sweeping indictment involving players on 17 college teams from 2022 to 2025. The scheme also involved two players — Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley — who were indicted in October for their alleged role in an NBA sports gambling scheme that included Miami Heat star Terry Rozier.

The highest-profile player charged Thursday was Antonio Blakeney, Louisiana State’s leading scorer in 2016-17 and a veteran of two seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The shooting guard has played for professional teams in China, Israel and Bahrain since last playing in the NBA in 2019.

According to the indictment, the scheme began with attempts during the 2022-2023 season to fix games within the Chinese Basketball Association. Blakeney, who played for the Jiangsu Dragons and led the league with 32.1 points per game, was reportedly recruited by Hennen and Fairley to earn points.

Hennen and Fairley were included in the indictment along with others who worked as AAU coaches or personal trainers and recruited players to shave points, often in the first halves of games. Prop bets – bets on specific events or occurrences within a game that are not linked to the final score – have also been placed on certain outcomes based on agreements with players. Payments of up to $20,000 were made to players, according to the indictment.

“Protecting the integrity of competitions is of the utmost importance to the NCAA. We are grateful to law enforcement who work to detect and combat integrity issues and game manipulation in college sports,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement Thursday. “The pattern of college basketball game integrity conduct revealed by law enforcement today is not entirely new information for the NCAA. Through helpful collaboration and with industry regulators, we have completed or initiated investigations into nearly all of the teams in today’s indictment.”

Colleges under investigation include DePaul, Saint Louis, La Salle, Eastern Michigan, Robert Morris, Fordham, Buffalo, Tulane, Northwestern (La.) State, Nicholls State, Southern Mississippi, North Carolina A&T, Kennesaw State, Coppin State, New Orleans, Abilene Christian and Alabama State.

The indictment estimates that the players conspired with as many as 39 players from those 17 Division I teams to fix games.

“Our law enforcement personnel have initiated sports betting integrity investigations into approximately 40 student-athletes from 20 schools over the past year,” Baker said. “While some investigations are ongoing, it was recently discovered that 11 student-athletes from seven schools had bet on their own performances, shared information with known bettors, and/or manipulated games to collect bets on themselves or others. This behavior resulted in a permanent loss of NCAA eligibility for each of them.

“In addition, 13 student-athletes from eight schools failed to cooperate with the sports betting integrity investigation by providing false or misleading information, failing to provide relevant documentation, and/or refusing to be interviewed by law enforcement personnel. None of them are competing today.”

At least four of the players charged are currently active: Kennesaw State’s Simeon Cottle, Delaware State’s Camian Shell, Eastern Michigan’s Carlos Hart and Texas Southern’s Oumar Koureissi. Cottle, in fact, scored 21 points Wednesday night in Kennesaw State’s win over Florida International and is the leading scorer in the Conference USA.

Baker said the NCAA is trying to stamp out sports betting violations through a “multi-tiered integrity monitoring program” that covers more than 20,000 games, but admits the organization can’t do it alone.

“We still need other states, regulators and gaming companies to eliminate integrity threats – such as collegiate prop betting – to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and predatory bettors,” he said. “We will also continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement. We urge all student-athletes to make informed choices to avoid jeopardizing the game and their eligibility.”