MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Back to a major story in this country. It's about college basketball. It's the latest sport at the center of a gambling scandal. Federal prosecutors announced criminal charges on Thursday against more than a dozen former players and the men who allegedly organized a scheme to bribe them to rig games. NPR's Becky Sullivan has the details.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: The scheme began back in 2022, prosecutors say, when two gambling influencers started to work with a former college basketball star who was then playing overseas in a Chinese professional league. Here's lead federal prosecutor David Metcalf.
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DAVID METCALF: The defendants would identify a game in which a corrupted player had a team that was favored to lose. And then they would bribe said player to deliberately underperform so that his team would lose by more than they were favored to. They would bet for them to not cover the point spread.
SULLIVAN: After winning hundreds of thousands of dollars on the Chinese games, prosecutors say, the three brought their enterprise home to the U.S. They looped in other conspirators with connections to the college basketball world, then began to recruit players. The indictment describes cash bribes of 10, 20, sometimes $30,000 for players to throw individual games. The conspirators allegedly focused on small-time teams and players who weren't stars who might be motivated to earn some extra money.
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METCALF: This is a pretty pervasive corruption scheme. We're talking about dozens of games, athletes, 17 teams. I do view it as historic.
SULLIVAN: In all, nearly 40 players were recruited to try to rig games, prosecutors say, from schools like Alabama State, Fordham and DePaul. Among the allegedly tainted games were some that were meaningful for NCAA tournament seeding and at least one postseason conference tournament game. Gambling has become an inescapable part of the sports landscape ever since the Supreme Court opened the door to widespread legalization back in 2018. Last fall, federal authorities unveiled indictments involving NBA games and two Major League Baseball pitchers. Prosecutor David Metcalf says, in this case, the victims go beyond the gambling platform.
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METCALF: The fans, right? You also have the honest athletes, the teammates of these players who are working their tail off. Everyone is victimized by this case. It's not just the people who lost money on the sports betting games. That's what I hope I would convey to you, is to think of the victims in this case in a far more broad way.
SULLIVAN: In a statement NCAA president Charlie Baker thanked law enforcement and said the integrity of games is of the utmost importance. The organization has run its own investigations into teams and players involved, he said, with 11 players already banned for life.
Becky Sullivan, NPR News.
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