News

Coaches Named In FBI Complaint

Category: Recruiting News
Written by Trevor Andershock

The FBI and US Attorney of the Southern District of New York leveled complaints against many top NCAA basketball coaches and programs Tuesday along with an executive of adidas.

 

In a move that will shake college basketball recruiting, four college coaches (Tony Bland, Book Richardson, Chuck Person, Lamont Evans)  were named in federal corruption charges. Also named in the federal case are adidas executive Jim Gatto and high school coach Brad Augustine. The case connects the college coaches working with financial managers, shoe companies and others to funnel money to top recruits in order for them to attend college at their institution then reconnect with the managers and adidas when they get to the NBA.

 

In the press conference, the FBI says that they will continue to go after college coaches and others that are breaking laws. They said it isn't an attempt to police the NCAA, but they do want to pursue anyone breaking federal laws. The FBI conducted wiretapping of calls between the people named in the complaint. It also has video recordings from Las Vegas hotel rooms during the adidas Summer Championships. 

 

"We have your playbook. The investigation is ongoing," said Bill Sweeney of the FBI.

 

It will be interesting to see how much deeper the FBI digs into college coaches bribing players. The FBI stated that they have been investigating the situation since 2015, but it took an informant, looking to decrease his own charges, to get the parties on tape talking about the payments to players and families. 

 

Louisville and Miami were implicated in the complaint. The complaint implies (school names and player names were not included but were described) that Louisville paid Brian Bowen $100,000 to commit. Here is the FBI complaint.