At least 20 people are accused of working with known gamblers to fix basketball games, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.
The lawsuit filed in Philadelphia cites charges of “bribery in sports competitions” and conspiracy to defraud, fix men’s college and professional basketball games in China.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced a full-scale lawsuit involving players from 17 college teams from 2022 to 2025. The program also involves two gamblers – Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley – who were indicted in October for their alleged role in an NBA sports betting scheme that involved Miami Heat star Terry Rozier.
The standout player charged Thursday was Antonio Blakeney, Louisiana State’s leading scorer in 2016-2017 and a two-season veteran with the Chicago Bulls. The shooting guard has played for professional teams in China, Israel and Bahrain since his last NBA appearance in 2019.
According to the indictment, the scheme began with efforts for the 2022-23 season to fix games in the Chinese Basketball Association. Blakeney, who played for the Jiangsu Dragons and led the way in scoring with 32.1 points per game, was allegedly recruited by Hennen and Farley to steal points.
Hennen and Fairley were indicted along with others who worked as AAU coaches or personal trainers and encouraged players to forfeit points, often in the first half of games. Prop bets – wagers on certain events or events within the game that are not tied to the final result – are also placed on certain outcomes based on agreements with the players. Payments of up to $20,000 were made to players, the lawsuit alleges.
“Protecting the integrity of competition is of utmost importance to the NCAA. We are grateful for the law enforcement agencies that work to find and combat integrity issues and cheating in college sports,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement Thursday. “The pattern of college basketball game integrity uncovered by law enforcement today is not entirely new information for the NCAA. Through helpful cooperation with industry regulators, we have completed or opened investigations into nearly all of the teams charged today.”
Colleges under investigation include DePaul, Saint Louis, La Salle, Eastern Michigan, Robert Morris, Fordham, Buffalo, Tulane, Northwestern (La.) State, Nicholls State, Southern Mississippi, North Carolina A&T, Kennesaw State, Coppin State, New Orleans, Abilene Christian and Alabama State.
The lawsuit estimates that gamblers conspired with as many as 39 players from those 17 Division I teams to fix games.
“Our law enforcement staff opened a sports betting integrity investigation into approximately 40 student-athletes from 20 schools last year,” Baker said. “While further investigations are ongoing, 11 student-athletes from seven schools were recently found to bet on their own games, shared information with known bettors, and/or engaged in game-rigging to collect on bets that—or others—had placed.
“Additionally, 13 athletes from eight schools were found to have failed to cooperate in a sports betting integrity investigation by providing false or misleading information, failing to provide proper documentation and/or refusing to be interviewed by law enforcement. None of them are competing today.”
At least four of the billed players are currently active: Kennesaw State’s Simeon Cottle, Delaware State’s Camian Shell, Eastern Michigan’s Carlos Hart and Texas Southern’s Oumar Koureissi. Cottle, in fact, scored 21 points Wednesday night in Kennesaw State’s win over Florida International and is the leading scorer in Conference USA.
Baker said the NCAA is trying to crack down on sports betting violations with an “integrity monitoring program” that covers more than 20,000 games, but he acknowledged the organization can’t do it alone.
“We still need the remaining states, regulators and sports companies to eliminate threats to integrity – such as public betting – to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and victim bettors,” he said. “We will continue to fully cooperate with law enforcement. We urge all student-athletes to make informed decisions to avoid jeopardizing the game and their fitness.”
