Former Indiana Pacer Among NCAA Coaches Facing Bribery Charges

Four assistant college basketball coaches are among 10 people arrested Tuesday for federal bribery, fraud and other corruption charges, including former Indiana Pacers player and coach Chuck Person, The New York Times reports. The news outlet reports the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a statement that federal prosecutors and the F.B.I. have been investigating situations when money was used in a criminal manner to influence NCAA basketball coaches and student-athletes. The New York Times adds investigations have revealed several occurrences of bribes paid between athlete advisers, assistant coaches, student-athletes and others, in order to get professional commitments from star NCAA athletes after they graduated, or high school athletes to attend certain universities.

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One of the three complains charges former Indiana Pacers player and coach Chuck Person, now an assistant coach at Auburn, along with James Gatto, head of global sports marketing, basketball for Adidas (called 'Company-1') , and three assistant coaches at Southern California, Oklahoma State and Arizona with fraud and money laundering in a setup to pay high school athletes to attend certain universities. The New York Times reports these coaches are Lamont Evans, an assistant at Oklahoma State and a former assistant at South Carolina; Emanuel Richardson, an assistant at Arizona; and Tony Bland, an assistant at U.S.C.

The New York Times reports the complaint says about $100,000 was to be paid to the family of “Player-10,” a heavily recruited high school standout, to steer him to a particular college, and to another high school athlete.

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Another complaint reportedly charges Mr. Person for soliciting and obtaining bribes between a financial adviser and business manager for professional athletes, therefore abusing his coaching position at Auburn.

ESPN reports the U.S. Department of Justice said each of these coaches faces a maximum sentence of 80 years in prison, and that they are scheduled to be arraigned in two weeks in New York.

More on this investigation: nytimes.com, patch.com

Lead image: Assistant basketball coaches Tony Bland, left, Chuck Person, center, and Lamont Richardson. (AP Photo/File)