Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania have indicted 20 men for their roles in allegedly fixing college basketball and Chinese Basketball Association games.
The alleged fixing scheme first focused on CBA games, before turning to NCAA games beginning in 2023. The scheme allegedly involved 17 NCAA teams and involved at least 29 games. The governing body said Thursday that much of the information in the indictment was “not entirely new information to the NCAA” as it had already been investigating dozens of current and former players.
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One of the men charged is former NBA player Antonio Blakeney. He appeared in 76 games for the Chicago Bulls across the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons and was playing in the CBA in 2022-2023. Fifteen others are or were men’s Division I college basketball players and five other college basketball players who have been charged elsewhere are also mentioned in the indictment.
According to the indictment, “a group of individuals worked together to recruit and bribe players to help influence or ‘fix’ Chinese Basketball Association men’s basketball games through ‘point shaving’ during the 2022-23 CBA season. The fixers bribed CBA players to underperform and help ensure their team failed to cover the spread in certain games and then, through various sportsbooks, arranged for large wagers to be placed on those games against that team.”
In one alleged instance, Blakeney, who was averaging over 30 points a game that season, scored just 11 points in a blowout win by the Guandong Southern Tigers over his Jiangsu Dragons team. The Tigers were favored by 11.5 points and $198,000 was wagered on the team to cover the spread.
In another alleged instance, Blakeney helped recruit a teammate in exchange for a $20,000 payment to make sure the opponent covered the spread in a game Blakeney didn’t participate in.
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Following the alleged CBA scheme, prosecutors allege “the fixers” then “turned their attention to fixing NCAA men’s basketball games” over the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons. This alleged scheme followed a similar pattern throughout, primarily targeting first-half spreads in mid- to low-level Division I games. As a way to persuade the players, “the fixers” would allegedly FaceTime with players to discuss the scheme and even allegedly show them the cash that was at stake.
According to the indictment, Blakeney, Jalen Smith, Marves Fairley, Shane Hennen, Roderick Winkler and Alberto Laureano “would then place wagers on those games through sportsbooks, betting against the team whose player or players they had bribed to engage in this point-shaving scheme. Because of the proliferation of legalized sports betting, the fixers could use numerous sportsbooks to place their bets on these games and conceal the scheme from authorities.”
Prosecutors say the alleged payments to college basketball players ranged from $10,000 to $30,000 a game and there were efforts to recruit multiple players on the same team to make sure that a bet would succeed. Players would then allegedly get paid in cash after their performances.
The scheme allegedly involved Nicholls State players Oumar Koureissi and Diante Smith; Tulane’s Kevin Cross; unnamed players on Northwestern State’s team; St. Louis’ Bradley Ezewiro; Shawn Fulcher and Isaiah Adams at Buffalo; Jalen Terry, Da’Sean Nelson and Micawber Etienne at DePaul; and Kennesaw State’s Simeon Cottle, among others.
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Cottle is one of four active players named in the indictment along with Eastern Michigan’s Carlos Hart, Delaware State’s Camian Shell and Koureissi. All four of them have appeared in a game in recent days.
In October, the NCAA said that it was investigating at least 30 current and former men’s basketball players for alleged sports gambling offenses.
“Protecting competition integrity is of the utmost importance for the NCAA,” president Charlie Baker said in a statement. “We are thankful for law enforcement agencies working to detect and combat integrity issues and match manipulation in college sports.
“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.”
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Prosecutors said that the defendants targeted players “for whom the bribe payments would meaningfully supplement or exceed legitimate NIL opportunities” and that they’d focus on underdogs who could fail to cover point spreads.
The indictment lists multiple Big East games DePaul was involved in during the early months of 2024. In one instance, Smith allegedly went to Chicago to pay the three named DePaul players and another person $40,000 in cash for the way they affected the first-half line in a game against Georgetown. On Feb. 24, 2024, the Hoyas had a 41-28 halftime lead. The spread at the half was 2.5 points.
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After that Georgetown game, Jalen Smith allegedly texted Etienne, “I love Jalen Terry he perfected his job.” Terry didn’t score in the first half before he dropped 16 in the second half.
Cottle was the 2025-2026 preseason player of the year in Conference USA and is currently averaging 20.2 points per game over 17 games after scoring 18 points a game a season ago.
Cottle and teammate Demond Robinson allegedly received $40,000 for their performances in a March 1, 2024, game against Queens University. Kennesaw State trailed 52-39 at halftime while Cottle went scoreless in the first 20 minutes. Queens was a 1.5-point first-half favorite.