Several former NCAA men’s college basketball players were among the 20 men charged in a point-shaving scheme, according to a federal indictment unsealed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Thursday (January 15), ESPN reports.
Fifteen of the defendants played college basketball during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 NCAA seasons, which included two players, Cedquavious Hunter and Dyquavian Short, who were sanctioned by the NCAA for fixing New Orleans Privateers games in November. Four others — Simeon Cottle, Carlos Hart, Camian Shell and Oumar Koureissi — appeared in games as recently as the past week, with Hart, Shell and Koureissi being charged for incidents that took place at their previous schools and Cottle’s taking place during the 2023-24 season.
The five other defendants named in the indictment were described as being fixers in the scheme. At least two defendants, Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley were previously charged in the federal indictment stemming from gambling schemes in the NBA last year.
Former NBA guard Antonio Blakeney was named in the indictment but not charged, as it describes him as being “charged elsewhere.” The scheme allegedly started around September 2022 and initially targeted Chinese Basketball Association games before the group shifted its focus to NCAA men’s basketball, offering players bribes estimated to be between $10,000 and $30,000 to compromise games for betting purposes.
“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.
NCAA president Charlie Baker issued a statement confirming that college athletics’ governing body had launched betting integrity investigations into approximately 40 players from 20 schools during the past 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 via NCAA.com. “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.”
“The Association has and will continue to aggressively pursue sports betting violations in college athletics using a layered integrity monitoring program that covers over 22,000 contests, but we still need the remaining states, regulators and gaming companies to eliminate threats to integrity – such as collegiate prop bets – to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and predatory bettors,” he added. “We also will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement. We urge all student-athletes to make well-informed choices to avoid jeopardizing the game and their eligibility.”
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