The prblem with all of this is I believe it is just NCAA rules that are broken and no laws (unless tax evasion) so not sure what FBI even investigates.
Pitino Sacked
- Thread starter NJCat
- Start date
Sounds as if fraud might have been involved in some of these cases, which the FBI certainly can investigate at an institution that receives federal funds. Given that an investigation is ongoing, the FBI obviously believes there is something worthy of its attention.
Although criminal law was certainly not my area, I frankly have trouble understanding all the bribery allegations being asserted here. The federal bribery statute only applies to "public officials" which might or could be construed to include state/municipal university positions but how could it apply to private universities?
https://www.si.com/college-basketba...ion-college-basketball-fraud-louisville-bribe
In short, private schools get federal money, too. And when you conduct your business via phone over state lines you get a federal wire fraud beef.
I don't know about Louisville, but they've already tracked some of the hashtags used during the anthem controversy back to Russia. The big bear has divisive message for all occasions.
The federal govt has pretty broad criminal statutes. Hell, the conspiracy and RICO regs are mighty ambiguous and always worthy of some judicial review. Wire fraud is another great catch-all. With the money involved, if anyone goes to trial, it could set up for a nice high court review.
That said, I applaud the use of federal funds here and hope it bleeds over to football. Definitely has to have everyone related to D1 and cheating nervous.
I understand the wire fraud and public money arguments and hope that the feds can prove such and hold these individuals accountable criminally. My point was simply that bribery allegations would be hard to prove against a private school employee since that person is not a public official.
The case startedwith a financial wealth manager engaging in fraud and bribery and from what I read maybe a Ponzi scheme and the SEC (not the sports conference) got involved and found that wire fraud of large amounts of money across state lines occurred with college basketball assistant coaches at schools like UofA, Auburn, So.Cal, SCarolina and then Louisville and Miami implicated. When you are dealing with fraudulent wire transfers across state lines, the FBI has the right to get involved and stop these illegal wire transfers and bribes to steer college players to sign with this crooked (allegedly) wealth manager. No overstepping by the SEC or FBI. Now the FBI has a tip line for other assistant coaches engaging in similar activities so that is how it could grow to more than the schools implicated in the complaint.
Forgot that Okie State was included and that Brad Underwood's main recruiting assistant. So that is a connection to the Big 10. Also, Ricky Pitino, Jr. should be considered as a potential target as Minny brings in 7-8 new players and high level recruits last season after going 8-24 in 2016-2017 to 24-10 last year when his coaching seat became hot. It makes experienced college basketball fans scratch their head.
FAKE NEWS!!! The Eagles are suing their butts....
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/03/eagles-sue-mexican-hotel-california-todos-santos