{"id":541072,"date":"2026-01-16T17:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/541072\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T17:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:54:14","slug":"20-charged-in-college-basketball-point-shaving-scheme-involving-dozens-of-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/541072\/","title":{"rendered":"20 Charged In College Basketball Point-Shaving Scheme Involving Dozens Of Players"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, 20 people were charged in a point-shaving scheme involving dozens of college basketball players across 17 Division I teams. Charges include bribery, wire fraud<\/a> and conspiracy. The allegations include paying players thousands of dollars not to score points in order to inflate results and influence betting<\/a> results.<\/p>\n

A \u2018significant\u2019 college basketball point-shaving scheme involved 39 players<\/p>\n

Efforts to fix games started around Sept. 2022 for games played within the Chinese Basketball Association, according to the indictment and as reported by ESPN<\/a>. Former NBA player Antonio Blakeney, who wasn\u2019t charged in the indictment but was charged separately, allegedly manipulated his performance and invited other players to do the same.<\/p>\n

Shane Hennen, one of the defendants in the case, reportedly texted a co-conspirator after a fixed game, \u201cNothing guaranteed in this world but death, taxes and Chinese basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of the 2023-24 season, a group of alleged \u201cfixers\u201d started targeting college basketball players \u201cfor whom the bribe payments would meaningfully supplement or exceed legitimate NIL opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

These bribes ranged from $10,000 to $30,000 to underperform. Manipulated results led to bettors placing and winning millions of dollars on games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a massive scheme that enveloped the world of college basketball,\u201d U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said in a Thursday news conference, according to NBC Sports<\/a>. \u201cThis was a significant and rampant corruption of college athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described the scheme as \u201cvery successful\u201d despite some failed attempts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn basketball, one player can substantially influence a game,\u201d Metcalf said, per ESPN. \u201cBut it\u2019s not a guarantee.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that alleged fixers who were recruited had connections in the sport in order to give legitimacy to the scheme.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey picked these men because they were well connected in the world of college basketball,\u201d Metcalf said. \u201cTrainers, recruiters, networkers, people of influence, and because of that influence, they added gravitas and legitimacy to the scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who was involved in the college basketball point-shaving scheme?<\/p>\n

As ESPN reported, four players were charged in the indictment: Simeon Cottle, Carlos Hart, Camian Shell and Oumar Koureissi. The allegations against them occurred in games played at their previous schools, while Cottle\u2019s allegations include an incident during the 2023-24 season. Hart was suspended from all of Eastern Michigan\u2019s team activities while the case is pending, while Cottle was suspended indefinitely from Kennesaw State\u2019s team activities.<\/p>\n

Twenty of the 26 defendants played college basketball during the 2023-24 and\/or 2024-25 seasons, according to ESPN. Defendants Hennen and Marves Fairley were also charged in a federal indictment regarding gambling schemes within the NBA.<\/p>\n

The defendants were charged with bribery in sporting contests and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The alleged fixers were also charged with counts of wire fraud. Bribery charges can lead to a maximum sentence of five years, while fraud charges carry a maximum of 20 years.<\/p>\n

Per ESPN, NCAA president Charlie Baker announced an investigation into betting integrity has been launched regarding about 40 players from 20 schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d he said. \u201cWe urge all student-athletes to make well-informed choices to avoid jeopardizing the game and their eligibility.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, 20 people were charged in a point-shaving scheme involving dozens of college basketball players across 17…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-541072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115906062911756858","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}