Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia have charged 20 people, including 15 former college basketball players, in what they say was a scheme to fix NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games.
Fifteen of the defendants played basketball for Division 1 NCAA schools as recently as the 2024-25 season, while the other defendants were “fixers,” prosecutors said in the federal indictment filed Thursday.
The fixers included two men who worked in the training and development of the basketball players, another who was a trainer and former coach and one who was a former NCAA player. Two were described as high-stakes sports gamblers, social media influencers and sports handicappers.
In the 70-page indictment, authorities say the fixers recruited the college basketball players with “bribe” payments, ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 a game, to fix the games through “point shaving,” or intentionally manipulating the game’s score and helping certain bettors win their wagers.
The scheme began in September 2022 with Chinese Basketball Association games before the fixers turned their attention to the NCAA men’s basketball games. The fixers recruited NCAA players during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons who would accept bribes in exchange for helping influence the outcomes of the games.
“In placing these wagers on games they had fixed, the defendants defrauded sportsbooks, as well as individual sports bettors, who were all unaware that the defendants had corruptly manipulated the outcome of these games that should have been decided fairly, based on genuine competition and the best efforts of the players,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment.
The 20 people named face bribery and wire fraud charges.
The 20 people charged are:
- Jalen Smith
- Marves Fairley
- Shane Hennen
- Roderick Winkler
- Alberto Laureano
- Arlando Arnold
- Simeon Cottle
- Kevin Cross
- Bradley Ezewiro
- Shawn Fulcher
- Carlos Hart
- Markeese Hastings
- Cedquavious Hunter
- Oumar Koureissi
- Da’Sean Nelson
- Demond Robinson
- Camian Shell
- Dyquavion Short
- Airion Simmons
- Jalen Terry
Two of the players named in the indictment, Cedquavious Hunter and Dyquavian Short, were sanctioned in November by the NCAA for fixed New Orleans games. At least two of the defendants, Shane Hennen and Marves Fairly, were also charged in a federal indictment in the Eastern District of New York related to gambling schemes in the NBA, ESPN reported.
Thursday’s indictment follows a series of NCAA investigations that led to at least 10 players receiving lifetime bans over bets. It also comes as 34 people were charged in last year’s sweeping federal takedown into gambling in professional basketball.
