James Gatto - Adidas Executive - 9 months in prison for federal fraud.
Merl Code - Adidas Consultant - 6 months in prison for federal fraud.
Christian Dawkins - Basketball Middleman - 6 months in prison for fraud.
Now here is the real kicker for anyone thinking anything will come from
this on the NCAA level.
QUOTE —>Yahoo Sports Article --> The government was able to convince
the jury that by making the players ineligible, Gatto, Code and Dawkins
had defrauded the schools by having them unwittingly give scholarships
to athletes that put the basketball programs at risk of NCAA sanctions.
Yeap… I’m sure it was all unwittingly done by coaches and schools!!! What
a joke.
UNWITTINGLY… OMG, I just can’t stop laughing at that!!
which is why the defense may be the ones who have subpoenaed the head coaches for the upcoming trial. The plan may be to show the involvement of head coaches in order to create reasonable doubt as to whether the schools were victims of fraud rather than willing buyers.
The guilty Middle men will sing and sing loud. The coaches will also end up being willing participants in the fraud that took place. They will share the cost of the amount the schools gets for damages and yes I believe the NCAA will either have to take action or close their doors for good! They are a laughing stock for letting this get to this point by turning their back on it for so long.
I did expect the jail time to be a little longer.
Federal time is day for day so there’s no good time!
Are you sure you’re reading a quote from the Judge’s order, or just Wetzel’s interpretation. If you want to know what happened, go pull the federal sentencing order. Don’t read some article. I have journalist call me all the time to interpret what the judge said. Just go read the dang order and put that out there word for word.
Additionally, there are probably 1000’s upon 1000’s pages of discovery on what did and did not happen, none of which have been ready by any of us. Yet, we all want to have an opinion. This is why there are juries and trials and pleas. If you want to say the NCAA is a joke, I agree. But at least they aren’t making these guys scapegoats just so you think the NCAA is doing something.
Once again, guys, there are two things going on here. There is the criminal case, which is based on some twisted logic at best, and there is the NCAA case. The NCAA case is a lot more clearcut. Players were bought, money changed hands, and we know that Will Wade and Archie Miller at least conspired to buy other players. The NCAA, however, does not have the FBI’s power to subpoena, to wiretap and to do a lot of other things to gather information. If not for the fact that the NCAA can piggyback on what the FBI found, I would have no use whatsoever for the FBI investigation.
I’m not surprised that the people sentenced got light sentences. Club Fed is pretty lenient for white collar crime, and that’s what this is. Martha Stewart got five months in prison for insider trading and there is at least the perception that insider trading steals from others by allowing them to profit at someone else’s expense on ill-gotten information. But they are now convicted felons with all that that entails – can’t travel abroad, own a gun, vote in some states, ineligible for certain public programs, etc.
I’m not sure schools, head coaches, and asst coaches paying recruits or their family is a crime. Not sure what the FBI could charge them with. Clearly, what they did is against NCAA rules and should be dealt with by the NCAA enforcement team. Unfortunately since the NCAA enforcement team totally bungled the Miami fiasco, they seem to be pretty toothless and afraid to meet out any real punishment.
Thanks to the FBI, they will now have access to legal information that has held up in court. We will see if they’ve “grown a pair” and are willing to take any action against the NCAA rules violators.
I’m for a lifetime suspension if a HC is proven guilty and if a student athlete is proved to be taking anything of monetary value his college career is over. Get tough and level the playing field for all coaches and players by cleaning up corruption in college sports. WPS
Just read an ESPN article on the FBI case and sentencing. It appears several coaches will be testifying at the next trail - including Wade (LSU) and Miller (Arizona State). Plea deals were worked out with 3 assistant coaches. I’d say lots of squealing going on about other coaches possibly other shoe companies.