The suspects face charges that include alleged bribery in sports, conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Attorney David Metcalf said the dozens accused in “to fix NCAA Division I men’s basketball games as well as professional Chinese Basketball Association games.” Those charged include several former college
basketball players:
Alberto Laureano, 24;
Arlando Arnold, 24;
Simeon Cottle, 21;
Kevin Cross, 25;
Bradley Ezewiro, 23;
Shawn Fulcher, 22;
Carlos Hart, 23;
Markeese Hastings, 25;
Cedquavious Hunter, 22;
Oumar Koureissi, 24;
Da'Sean Nelson, 23;
Demond Robinson, 25;
Camian Shell, 23;
Dyquavion Short, 20;
Airion Simmons, 25;
Jalen Terry, 24;
Corey Hines, 23;
Diante Smith, 25;
Antonio Blakeney, 29;
Isaiah Adams, 24;
Micawber Etienne, 24;
Elijah Gray, 22.
Trainers Jalen Smith, 30, and Roderick Winkler, 31, and “high-stakes sports gamblers” Marves Fairley, 40, and Shane Hennen, 40, were also named in the indictments. The 'integrity of sport' under threat Metcalf said "the integrity of sport itself and everything that sports represent to us —hard work, determination and fairness" was threatened by these defendants.
"We allege an extensive international criminal conspiracy of NCAA players, alumni and professional bettors who fixed gains across the country and poisoned the American spirit of competition for monetary gain," Metcalf told reporters Thursday. Fixers “engaged in a point-shaving scheme involving more than 39 players on more than 17 different NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams who then fixed and attempted to fix more than 29” games for millions of dollars in bets, the indictment said.
The allegedly fixed games include contests in China and players in the U.S. who, the indictment said, manipulated or attempted to manipulate contests involving Nicholls State, Tulane, Northwestern State, Saint Louis, LaSalle, Fordham, Buffalo, DePaul, Robert Morris, Southern Miss, North Carolina A&T, Kennesaw State, Coppin State, New Orleans, Abilene Christian, Eastern Michigan and Alabama State the indictment said.Effort to allegedly fix 29 college games in two seasons
The defendants are accused of fixing or attempting to fix the final scores of 29 games in what could be the most sweeping college basketball scandal since the 1951 point-shaving scheme involving several New York City schools, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors say the alleged conspiracy began in September 2022 when the defendants started to bribe players in the Chinese Basketball Association to engage in “point shaving,” when someone is paid to manipulate a game’s final margin of victory and not necessarily the win-loss outcome. Fairley and Hennen initially targeted Blakeney, who was playing for the CBA’s Jiangsu Dragons, prosecutors said. Blakeney, who had played for LSU, “agreed to participate in the scheme and then recruited other players from Jiangsu,” according to court papers.
Scheme had roots in China, prosecutor says
In a March 6, 2023, game, Blakeney’s Dragons were 11.5-point underdogs to the Guangdong Southern Tigers. Fairley and Hennen bet $198,3000 via BetRivers Sportsbook on the favorites to cover that spread, authorities said. Blakeney, who averaged 32 points per game that season, scored just 11 in that contest, leading to a 127-96 spread-covering win for the Tigers.
“Blakeney underperformed in and influenced the game as he and the fixers had agreed,” the indictment said. The indictment cited other games allegedly fixed by Blakeney.
In April 2023, after the CBA season, Fairley “placed a package into Antonio Blakeney’s storage unit in Florida, which contained nearly $200,000 in cash, representing bribe payments and proceeds from the fixed CBA games,” according to the indictment.
The scheme moved to U.S. college basketball games during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, prosecutors said, as Blakeney allegedly “agreed to recruit NCAA players who would accept bribe payments,” court papers said.
Payments “ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 per game” were made to the American college players, court documents said.
The players and games targeted in this alleged scheme tended to be at lesser-known programs, though defendants Terry, Nelson and Etienne took their alleged dives for DePaul, a school part of the powerful Big East Conference, the indictment said.
The Blue Demons played poorly by design in a Feb. 24, 2024, game against Georgetown and accepted more payments to underperform in losses against Butler and St. John's that benefited gamblers, the indictment said.
There were alleged attempts to buy off players from Saint Louis, LaSalle and Fordham, members of the Atlantic 10 Conference, generally considered one of the best leagues outside traditional powerhouses of the Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC and SEC.
Fixers 'very successful' but not bulletproof, prosecutors said
The effort to rig a LaSalle-St. Bonaventure game on Feb. 21, 2024, was among the few fails of the scheme, prosecutors said. The fixers offered unnamed LaSalle players "bribe payments to underperform in and influence the first half" of that game, according to the indictment.
The gamblers bet $247,000 on the Bonnies to win the first half by at least 5.5 points, but LaSalle was actually on top, 36-28, at intermission, according to the indictment
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