MD college athlete included in indictment for rigging basketball games

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Federal prosecutors charged 26 people — including a Coppin State University player — with rigging bets on college and Chinese professional basketball games, according to an indictment unsealed on Thursday, the latest case to accuse athletes of cheating at legalized sports betting that has exploded in popularity in the U.S.

The 70-page indictment names more than a dozen former college and professional basketball players, as well as two sports-betting influencers who were previously charged in a sweeping NBA bet-rigging investigation. The charges include bribery in sporting contests, wire fraud and conspiracy.

An anonymous player for Coppin State in Baltimore is accused of coordinating with the conspirators to throw a home game against South Carolina State University in March 2024.

“Person #13” allegedly received a text message from one of the indicted individuals at halftime, as Coppin State was playing better than they were supposed to under the scheme. The game ended in a 61-58 win for South Carolina State, a margin too narrow for them to cover the point spread.

“It need to be a blowout,” defendant Jalen Smith texted the Coppin State player. “You hooping yo ass off wtf.”

After the game, the player responded that the other team was playing so badly that his team couldn’t lose by a wide margin. He allegedly told his teammates to “chill” and apologized to Smith, adding, “I tried everything in my power second half.”

Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia allege the scheme began in 2022, when several of the defendants began recruiting and bribing Chinese Basketball Association players to intentionally underperform in games to ensure certain bets placed on their teams.

“The criminal charges we have filed allege the criminal corruption of collegiate athletics through an international conspiracy of NCAA players, alumni, and professional bettors,” said U.S. Attorney David Metcalf of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, calling them “yet another blow to public confidence in the integrity of sport.”

The scheme widened to U.S. college basketball during the 2023-24 season, according to prosecutors, who said the defendants recruited players to accept bribes for helping to ensure their teams came up short of their projected margins of victory, or spreads.

Prosecutors said the scheme involved 39 players on more than 17 Division I college basketball teams, millions of dollars in wagers on fixed games and hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.

Towson University is also mentioned in the indictment, but is not accused of wrongdoing.

In a game at North Carolina A&T in February 2024, players for the home team coordinated with the “co-schemers” to intentionally underperform during the first half. Towson led 42-21 at halftime, and the bettors profited by covering the first-half point spread.

Prosecutors said the proliferation of legalized sports betting allowed the fixers to avoid detection by spreading their wagers around widely.

Two of the defendants, sports-betting influencers Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley, were charged in October alongside Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat and former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones with rigging bets on NBA games by placing wagers using insider information, including undisclosed player medical reports. All four men pleaded not guilty in that case.

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Fairley’s attorney Eric Siegle declined to comment on the new charges. Hennen’s lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The charges against Rozier and Jones were unveiled in Brooklyn federal court alongside a related case against more than a dozen defendants, including Portland Trail Blazers coach and NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, who is accused of conspiring to cheat at illicit poker games using high-tech equipment. Billups and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors have also charged Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz with rigging bets on their pitches during MLB games. Both men pleaded not guilty in the case.

Reporting by Susan Heavey and Nate Raymond; editing by Doina Chiacu, Rod Nickel and Bill Berkrot.

Daily Record reporter Ian Round contributed to this report.

This story has been updated.