A group of 20 men, including many former players, has been charged in a massive game-fixing scandal involving more than 39 players across 17 Division I NCAA teams, resulting in 29 games being fixed.
The federal document detailing the charges was unsealed on Thursday in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
According to the document, 15 of the 20 people charged played college basketball at some point over the last two years; some have even played this year.
As for the other five defendants, authorities describe them as “fixers.” There is also overlap between this point-shaving scandal and the NBA gambling scandal uncovered last year. Two of the defendants, Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley, were also named in the NBA gambling scandal.
The scandal reportedly began in September 2022, when fixers began targeting games in the Chinese Basketball Association. Not content with merely fixing games overseas, the group then targeted the NCAA, offering payouts to college players ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 to help fix games, the indictment states.
“In placing these wagers on games they had fixed, the defendants defrauded sportsbooks, as well as individual sports bettors, who were all unaware that the defendants had corruptly manipulated the outcome of these games that should have been decided fairly, based on genuine competition and the best efforts of the players,” the indictment said.