FBI and DOJ Announce Corruption Charges in College Basketball
Per the twitter, Assistants at Arizona and USC are among those that have been named in an FBI investigation and are being brought up on corruption charges. More to follow, I'm sure.
Apparently the Money was funneled through Adidas.
From what I can see, the schools named so far are:
Arizona
USC
OK. State
Auburn
FBI and DOJ Announce Corruption Charges in College Basketball
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Solon
So, attorneys and other smart guys, please educate me.
What, exactly, would these (alleged) crimes look like? I understand that it is a violation of NCAA rules to pay a player, etc., but that's not a crime (is it?).
Rather, from the espn article, I am inclined to think that the crime lies in something like extortion/bribery/racketeering/conspiracy/influence-peddling.
Obviously, extortion is illegal, but it is unclear to me at what point the others become bona fide crimes.
So, help a guy out. Please.
According to the ESPN report, the charges are:
Quote:
bribery conspiracy, solicitation of bribes, honest services fraud conspiracy, honest service fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and Travel Act conspiracy. The U.S. Department of Justice said each of the coaches faces a maximum sentence of 80 years in prison.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas...aud-corruption
With charges and potential prison terms of that magnitude we can expect to see a lot of flipping before too long. The masterminds of this entire scheme are the ones the FBI really wants.
So what is “honest services fraud“? It is based on a federal criminal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1346, that has been criticized for its vagueness. The Supreme Court has tried to fix the vagueness issue by construing the statute narrowly:
Quote:
[F]raudulent schemes to deprive another of honest services through bribes or kickbacks supplied by a third party who has not been deceived.
I’m sure that makes everything perfectly clear. Anyway, those guys are in a heap of trouble.