A number of college basketball players have been indicted in a point-shaving and bribery scam that has seen 20 men charged by federal prosecutors.
According to TMZ, an indictment that was unsealed on Thursday (January 15) alleges that Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley, with help from former NBA player Antonio Blakeney, devised a system involving 17 NCAA Division I teams that rigged 29 games over two seasons. Among the defendants are 15 college basketball players who played during the 2023-2024 and/or 2024-2025 seasons.
"This was a massive scheme that enveloped the world of college basketball," US Attorney David Metcalf said in a news conference, per ESPN. "This was a significant and rampant corruption of college athletics." He added that the "pretty pervasive corruption scheme" was "historic."
As far as bribery goes, it's claimed the strategy was to pay players $10,000 to $30,000 per game for poor performance, so bettors could make money.
According to prosecutors, the alleged scheme initially targeted the Chinese Basketball Association in September 2022, in which Blakeney is accused of compromising his playing so the crew could cash in on bets made in the US. He allegedly made around $200,000 for his role.
"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.
It's then claimed the group moved its scam to the US and targeted college programs such as DePaul, Tulane, La Salle, Fordham, Saint Louis, Buffalo, and Southern Miss, among others.
The charges include bribery, wire fraud, and conspiracy. The bribery charge carries a maximum sentence of five years, while the fraud charges carry a maximum prison term of up to 20 years.
Hennen and Fairley have also been implicated in a federal case connected to NBA gambling, as well as a scheme that used former NBA players as bait. Both have pleaded not guilty. Blakeney was named but wasn’t charged in the indictment.
Following the indictment's unsealing, NCAA president Charlie Baker issued a statement saying that the NCAA enforcement staff has launched an investigation into approximately 40 players from 20 schools over the last year.
"Protecting competition integrity is of the utmost importance for the NCAA. We are thankful for law enforcement agencies working to detect and combat integrity issues and match manipulation in college sports," Baker said. "The pattern of college basketball game integrity conduct revealed by law enforcement today is not entirely new information to the NCAA. Through helpful collaboration and with industry regulators, we have finished or have open investigations into almost all of the teams in today's indictment."