This just makes my skin crawl. My god, funneling money thru an AAU program? No wonder the NCAA can't keep up and it took the FBI to uncover this.
As you will read:
Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino, who has been placed on unpaid administrative leave amid a federal investigation into fraud and corruption, is the "Coach-2" who played a role in funneling money to a recruit, a source confirmed to ABC News on Thursday.
CBS first identified Pitino as "Coach-2" on Thursday.
According to court records, Christian Dawkins, the former agent for ASM Sports who was charged in both parts of the college basketball case, told the cooperating witness, Marty Blazer, that he helped funnel $100,000 to the family of recruit Brian Bowen "at the request of a coach," identified as "Coach-2 [Rick Pitino] ."
Court records also said Adidas executive Jim Gatto "spoke directly with Coach-2 [Rick Pitino] multiple times in the days before [Bowen] publicly committed" to Louisville.
During a meeting in a hotel room in Las Vegas on July 27, which was recorded by video cameras the FBI placed in the room the day before, Dawkins, Jonathan Brad Augustine (the director of a Florida-based AAU program) and an undercover agent discussed how to pay $100,000 to the family of Bowen, a highly recruited player from LaPorte, Indiana, who had recently committed to play for Louisville, which has a shoe and apparel contract with Adidas.
Because two Adidas employees involved in the scheme were having difficulty getting the money, they wanted to funnel the payments through Augustine's AAU program, which was sponsored by Adidas. According to FBI documents, at one point during the conversation in the hotel room, Augustine allegedly said, "No one swings a bigger [expletive] than [Coach-2, Rick Pitino] at [Adidas]" and added "all [Coach-2 RIck Pitino] has to do is pick up the phone and call somebody [and say], 'These are my guys; they're taking care of us.'"
"On or about June 3, 2017, [Bowen] officially committed to [Louisville] in return for the commitment by Gatto and [Adidas] to pay $100,000 for his family," the FBI complaint says.
Link to video and the story: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...-rick-pitino-coach-2-federal-complaint-source
As you will read:
Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino, who has been placed on unpaid administrative leave amid a federal investigation into fraud and corruption, is the "Coach-2" who played a role in funneling money to a recruit, a source confirmed to ABC News on Thursday.
CBS first identified Pitino as "Coach-2" on Thursday.
According to court records, Christian Dawkins, the former agent for ASM Sports who was charged in both parts of the college basketball case, told the cooperating witness, Marty Blazer, that he helped funnel $100,000 to the family of recruit Brian Bowen "at the request of a coach," identified as "Coach-2 [Rick Pitino] ."
Court records also said Adidas executive Jim Gatto "spoke directly with Coach-2 [Rick Pitino] multiple times in the days before [Bowen] publicly committed" to Louisville.
During a meeting in a hotel room in Las Vegas on July 27, which was recorded by video cameras the FBI placed in the room the day before, Dawkins, Jonathan Brad Augustine (the director of a Florida-based AAU program) and an undercover agent discussed how to pay $100,000 to the family of Bowen, a highly recruited player from LaPorte, Indiana, who had recently committed to play for Louisville, which has a shoe and apparel contract with Adidas.
Because two Adidas employees involved in the scheme were having difficulty getting the money, they wanted to funnel the payments through Augustine's AAU program, which was sponsored by Adidas. According to FBI documents, at one point during the conversation in the hotel room, Augustine allegedly said, "No one swings a bigger [expletive] than [Coach-2, Rick Pitino] at [Adidas]" and added "all [Coach-2 RIck Pitino] has to do is pick up the phone and call somebody [and say], 'These are my guys; they're taking care of us.'"
"On or about June 3, 2017, [Bowen] officially committed to [Louisville] in return for the commitment by Gatto and [Adidas] to pay $100,000 for his family," the FBI complaint says.
Link to video and the story: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...-rick-pitino-coach-2-federal-complaint-source
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