Corruption Bomb just dropped.
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NCAA basketball coaches among 10 charged with fraud, corruption
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Bilas on corruption probe: 'This is an unusual situation' (1:15)
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12:19 PM ET
ESPN.com news services
NEW YORK -- Four assistant basketball coaches from Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State and the University of Southern California were among those arrested on federal corruption charges Tuesday after they were caught taking thousands of dollars in bribes to steer NBA-destined college stars toward certain sports agents and financial advisers, authorities said.
The coaches named in court documents are Auburn's Chuck Person, Oklahoma State's Lamont Evans, Arizona's Emanuel "Book" Richardson and USC's Tony Bland. It was not immediately clear who would represent them at initial court appearances.
Also charged in Manhattan federal court were managers, financial advisers and representatives of a major international sportswear company. The details were to be discussed at a news conference noon ET Tuesday.
NCAA spokeswoman Gail Dent, when asked for a statement from the NCAA, said, "Nothing on this end. We'll let you know if that changes."
"We were surprised to learn this morning of potential actions against one of our assistant basketball coaches by federal officials," read a statement from Oklahoma State. "We are reviewing and investigating the allegations. We are cooperating fully with officials. Let it be clear we take very seriously the high standards of conduct expected in our athletic department. We will not tolerate any deviation from those standards."
Other people named in the documents include:
James Gatto, director of global sports marketing at Adidas;
Merl Code, who recently left Nike for Adidas;
Christian Dawkins, an NBA agent who was fired in May from ASM Sports for charging approximately $42,000 in Uber charges on a player's credit card;
Jonathan Brad Augustine, president of The League Initiative and program director of the Adidas-sponsored 1 Family AAU program;
Munish Sood, a financial adviser;
Rashan Michel, a former NBA official who founded Thompson Bespoke Clothing, a custom clothier for athletes.
The FBI complaint against Gatto and others also includes a reference to a "public research university located in Kentucky," and sources told ESPN that it's the University of Louisville. The complaint says the school has an enrollment of approximately 22,640, which matches Louisville's during the 2016-17 academic year, and that the school offers approximately 21 varsity sports teams, which is the number the Cardinals offer, according to the athletics department's website.
The allegations against the unnamed school in Kentucky, which is identified as "University-6" in the complaint, include payments of $100,000 from a sports apparel company to the family of an unnamed player, identified as "Player 10," to ensure him signing with the school.
In a sworn statement from FBI agent John Vourderios, he wrote: "I have learned that 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."
The indictment also says that prior to paying Player-10's family, the defendants "first needed time to generate a sham purchase order and invoice ostensibly to justify using Company-1 funds since they could not lawfully pay the family of Player-10 directly and risk that such prohibited payments be revealed."
A University of Louisville athletics department spokesperson said the school was unaware of the investigation until Tuesday and didn't yet have a statement. High-ranking members of the Louisville athletics department were meeting on Tuesday morning.
Since 2015, the FBI has been investigating the criminal influence of money on coaches and student-athletes in the NCAA, federal authorities said.
They said the probe has revealed numerous instances in which bribes were paid by athlete advisers, such as financial advisers and associate coaches, to other coaches to exert influence over student-athletes so the athletes would use the services of those paying the bribes.
In criminal complaints, investigators said coaches can provide access for the student-athletes to sports agents, financial advisers, business managers and others.
"Moreover, many such coaches have enormous influence over the student-athletes who play for them, in particular with respect to guiding those student-athletes through the process of selecting agents and other advisers when they prepare to leave college and enter the NBA," the complaints said.
"The investigation has revealed several instances in which coaches have exercised that influence by steering players and their families to retain particular advisers, not because of the merits of those advisers, but because the coaches were being bribed by the advisers to do so," the papers said.
Court documents state that Gatto, Code, Dawkins, Augustine and Sood allegedly made bribes to at least three high school players and/or their families. One situation involved $100,000 to commit to play at an Adidas-sponsored school. The second involved payments to commit to a certain school and then retain Dawkins' services. The third involved as much as $150,000 to attend an Adidas-sponsored school, sign with Dawkins and also sign with Adidas..
Documents also state that Michel offered Person $50,000 in bribe payments "in exchange for using his official position at University-1 to steer student-athletes on University-1's NCAA Division I men's basketball team to retain the services of CW-1 and Michel."
According to court documents, Evans, Richardson and Bland all allegedly received benefits from Dawkins and Sood to influence student-athletes to use their services.
In a statement Tuesday, Adidas said it was unaware whether Gatto was allegedly arranging to pay high school players. "Today, we became aware that federal investigators arrested an adidas employee," the company said. "We are learning more about the situation. We're unaware of any misconduct and will fully cooperate with authorities to understand more."
Information from ESPN's Jeff Borzello, Mark Schlabach and The Associated Press was used in this report.
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