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Post by motorcitysam on Sept 26, 2017 10:29:52 GMT -5
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Post by motorcitysam on Sept 26, 2017 10:56:41 GMT -5
Connecting the dots, it looks like Saginaw's Brian Bowen might be involved in this situation. His recruitment was peculiar, to say the least, and his commitment to Louisville lines up with information in the indictments about a player's family getting $100,000 as an incentive to attend a certain school. Other details support that theory as well.
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Post by Commissioner on Sept 26, 2017 11:08:07 GMT -5
Wow.
As for the Tugs Bowen angle...
From the ESPN story: "in or around May of 2017, at the request of at least once coach from University-6, Dawkins, James Gatto, a/k/a "Jim," Merl Code, Munish Sood, the defendants, and other agreed to funnel $100,000 (payable in four installments) from Company-1 to the family of Player-10. Shortly after the agreement with the family of Player-10 was reached in late May or early June, Player-10 publicly committed to University-6."
It's pretty obvious from the ESPN story that U-6 is Louisville. Tugs Bowen committed to L'Ville on June 4. Here's a typical headline, this one from CBS Sports: "Louisville lands surprise commitment from Brian Bowen, last five-star in 2017: Bowen once thought headed to Michigan State or Arizona, but Louisville comes out of nowhere"
That June CBS article notes: "The Cardinals were extremely late to the table with the intriguing wing prospect, but after Bowen visited the campus in late May, things swung heavily in favor of Rick Pitino's program. ... Nobody was projecting Bowen to Louisville as recently as mid-May. Given that reality, his ironically fast decision comes as a fitting twist to his elongated and mysterious recruitment. ... Bowen, who is from Michigan, wasn't even recruited by Louisville for most of the past two years. But in the past couple of weeks, something changed. Bowen had someone in his camp reach out to Louisville to gauge potential interest."
I don't want to pre-judge this, but I've always gotten a negative vibe from Tugs.
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Post by motorcitysam on Sept 26, 2017 12:26:51 GMT -5
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Post by Commissioner on Sept 26, 2017 19:33:05 GMT -5
Thinking of scandals, this remains one of my favorite stories ever from the Onion. Can't find an original, but fortunately lots of people circulated it on the net at the time:
NCAA investigating Butler after Calipari complains
INDIANAPOLIS--Butler's run in the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship Game may be tarnished after reports surfaced today that all 13 players on the roster are being given good educations in an effort to help them find good jobs after they leave the school. "It's important to remember that right now these are only allegations -- allegations that we are looking into," said NCAA president James Isch. "But, obviously, if true, this would be very disappointing. The NCAA has certain expectations and standards. It's not fair for players at one school to be given good educations while athletes at other member schools receive basic, remedial instruction that is worth essentially nothing." According to documents seized from the school's registrar's office, Butler players have received an education worth $38,616 per year totaling more than $150,000 over a four-year career.
Compare that to player at a school like Kentucky , where tuition is set at $4,051 -- but with an actual value far below that. “We don't want to say too much until these reports are confirmed," said Kentucky head basketball coach John Calipari. "But we're talking about almost $140,000 difference in education per player -- and that's even if my players stayed four years or graduated, which most of them do not. Then these Butler players are reportedly stepping into good paying jobs after graduation while my kids, if they don't make the NBA, have absolutely no job prospects or life skills. It's far from a balanced playing field. They are buying the best players by giving them a high-priced education."
In addition to the allegations that they were given an expensive education, many Butler players have been spotted around campus holding books, studying and engaging in interesting conversations. Others have been seen with people who are known to not be tutors. Butler point guard and Kentucky native Ronald Nored, who is reportedly a secondary education major, denied allegations that the Bulldog program is cheating. "The discourse on this matter is fatuous and inane," he said, implicating the program further.
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Post by ptctitan on Sept 27, 2017 6:23:05 GMT -5
Is anyone questioning yet how these unethical acts rise to the level of federal crimes? When you get to the gist of the crimes, they come down to the fact that the athletes and the coaches sign certifications that they are unaware of any NCAA rules violations involved with each athlete and that the coaches' employers receive more than $10K per year in funds from the federal government. This isn't even as clear cut a crime as a loan fraud case.
Also, these charges were brought and arrests made by complaint and warrant rather than by grand jury indictment. I wonder if the US Atty feared not being able to get indictments from a grand jury due to the weak link to the federal criminal statutes.
I am not saying that these were not acts that merit severe NCAA sanctions against the coaches, players, and maybe even the schools. I am questioning why this is a federal criminal matter that subjects the coaches, players, and others to jail time and other restrictions on their freedoms. Any thoughts by others here?
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Post by motorcitysam on Sept 28, 2017 0:06:29 GMT -5
Alabama has fired an employee, a "basketball administrator", due to findings in the FBI investigation.
Miami has been officially notified that they are under FBI investigation.
Two 2018 top 100 commits at Louisville and one top 100 commit at Auburn had de-committed.
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Post by ptctitan on Sept 28, 2017 7:41:19 GMT -5
sam - thank you for updating the thread. The Alabama employee worked previously at the NCAA as an enforcement administrator. He was Staff Member-1 in the complaint against the agent Michel.
I'm still concerned about the Feds criminalizing violations of NCAA rules. And why this investigation came out of the NYC US Attorney's office when none of the violations appear to have been committed in NYC.
On the other hand, the size of these "referral fees" seem too large for what was being arranged. $25K for arranging a meeting and agreeing to recommend that a player hire a certain agent when he graduates or leaves school?
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Post by Commissioner on Sept 28, 2017 9:12:21 GMT -5
Is anyone questioning yet how these unethical acts rise to the level of federal crimes? When you get to the gist of the crimes, they come down to the fact that the athletes and the coaches sign certifications that they are unaware of any NCAA rules violations involved with each athlete and that the coaches' employers receive more than $10K per year in funds from the federal government. This isn't even as clear cut a crime as a loan fraud case. Also, these charges were brought and arrests made by complaint and warrant rather than by grand jury indictment. I wonder if the US Atty feared not being able to get indictments from a grand jury due to the weak link to the federal criminal statutes. I am not saying that these were not acts that merit severe NCAA sanctions against the coaches, players, and maybe even the schools. I am questioning why this is a federal criminal matter that subjects the coaches, players, and others to jail time and other restrictions on their freedoms. Any thoughts by others here? I agree. Everything is a federal crime these days. Remember when people used to say, "you don't have to make a federal case out of it"? Apparently we do.
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Post by motorcitysam on Sept 29, 2017 1:06:52 GMT -5
If you're paying out and receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash that isn't being disclosed and won't be taxed, you're basically asking for the feds to arrest you. Seems pretty clear that the tax evasion aspects alone put this under federal jurisdiction.
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Post by ptctitan on Sept 29, 2017 6:01:06 GMT -5
If you're paying out and receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash that isn't being disclosed and won't be taxed, you're basically asking for the feds to arrest you. Seems pretty clear that the tax evasion aspects alone put this under federal jurisdiction. Your point is a valid one. Except that the Feds have not charged any defendant with income tax evasion. They have been charged with depriving their employers of their honest services and conspiracy to deprive their employers of their honest services. Plus some other violations. But not income tax evasion. That's why the complaints get into the tortured logic of alleging that these universities received more than $10K per year in federal funds. In essence, they are claiming that all of these universities are federal contractors because they accept federal grant money. For me, this is a very scary proposition - that federal aid gives the federal government control over every aspect of a university's business.
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Post by motorcitysam on Sept 29, 2017 15:58:40 GMT -5
If you're paying out and receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash that isn't being disclosed and won't be taxed, you're basically asking for the feds to arrest you. Seems pretty clear that the tax evasion aspects alone put this under federal jurisdiction. Your point is a valid one. Except that the Feds have not charged any defendant with income tax evasion. They have been charged with depriving their employers of their honest services and conspiracy to deprive their employers of their honest services. Plus some other violations. But not income tax evasion. That's why the complaints get into the tortured logic of alleging that these universities received more than $10K per year in federal funds. In essence, they are claiming that all of these universities are federal contractors because they accept federal grant money. For me, this is a very scary proposition - that federal aid gives the federal government control over every aspect of a university's business. Well, the question was does this rise to the level of criminal activity that should involve the federal government. If there are allegations of unreported income in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, then obviously it does. As far as there being no tax evasion charges currently known, the US attorney said the investigation was ongoing. Charges get added all of the time as cases are developed and perpetrators are identified. Just because they discovered other federal crimes during the investigation doesn't mean tax evasion alone isn't enough to make it a proper case for the feds to pursue. Announced charges have included money laundering, fraud, and bribery. That's not minor. Also, the feds didn't set up a task force to investigate college basketball. Based on what I have read, a financial advisor got busted committing federal crimes while defrauding multiple clients. In seeking a lighter sentence and leniency from the prosecution, he offered up knowledge and cooperation regarding other federal crimes of which he was aware, some of which involve criminal activity across state lines. Plenty of local, state, and federal prosecutions start that way. Should the feds have just said, "No, we're not interested because it's college basketball"? Do you think the feds should have been involved in the corruption case involving Kwame Kilpatrick and the City of Detroit? Some people made the claim that it was a local and state matter. Tax concerns, mail fraud, and the fact that the corruption involved entities and projects receiving federal money put it in the US Attorney's purview. I don't see anything wrong with what the feds are doing in this particular case, but then again I'm not the type who aligns with Ronald Reagan's "Government is the problem" philosophy. For federal government prosecutorial overreach, I'd cite the BALCO case from a few years ago.
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Post by motorcitysam on Sept 30, 2017 0:18:23 GMT -5
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Post by motorcitysam on Oct 1, 2017 17:32:44 GMT -5
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Post by motorcitysam on Oct 2, 2017 0:52:28 GMT -5
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