A point-shaving scandal involving at least one pro basketball player and up to seven college programs is casting a dark shadow over the upcoming NCAA Basketball Tournament.
Known as "March Madness," the tournament is expected to draw up to $3 billion in bets. What's worrying federal authorities is that no one yet knows how deep the betting scandal goes. Court filings indicate that it may be "one of the most pervasive point-shaving scandals in NCAA history," according to Sports Illustrated.
The kingpin of the gambling operation is a little-known sports gambler from Las Vegas, Shane Hennen. He was arrested while boarding a flight to Columbia with a one-way ticket, and found with $10,000 in cash.
U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny of the Eastern District of New York claimed there was “substantial evidence” that the suspect was involved in “illicit financial transactions and fraudulent sports wagers totaling millions of dollars,” which resulted “in potentially millions of dollars’ worth of illicit profits and money-laundering transactions.”
It's not a nickel-and-dime operation by any means. And Hennen may be ready to make a deal for his testimony.
The pro player involved in the point-shaving scheme is a journeyman player, Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter. Porter is a "two-way player," meaning he goes up and down between the minor "G" League and the NBA Raptors. Porter was heavily in debt to Hennen, and agreed to take himself out of games to cover prop bets. Prop bets don't necessarily impact the final score, but in Porter's case, the bets targeted the expected number of points he was going to score. By taking himself out of the game, he won Hennen millions of dollars.
The Justice Department alleges Hennen had five co-conspirators just for the Porter scheme. Only four have been publicly identified. Three—Timothy McCormack, Mahmud Mollah and Long Phi “Bruce” Pham—pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy. A grand jury indicted the fourth, Ammar Awawdeh, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery. The Justice Department has said Hennen will be charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering, but delayed officially charging him while he negotiates a plea.
After Hennen was arrested at the Vegas airport, the U.S. Attorney’s office wrote that he was trying to flee the country before a “Jan. 15 deadline.” The publicly available letter, which has portions redacted, did not specify a reason for the deadline. According to a filing signed by Hennen and an attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s office, the two sides are negotiating a plea deal. If they reach one, and it includes a promise from Hennen to testify truthfully, we might learn the full scope of the game-fixing ring.
“The NCAA takes sports betting very seriously and is committed to the protection of the student athlete’s well-being and the integrity of competition,” the NCAA said in a recent statement. “The Association works with integrity monitoring services, state regulators and other stakeholders to conduct appropriate due diligence whenever suspicious reports are received. Due to confidentiality rules put in place by NCAA member schools, the NCAA will not comment on current pending or potential investigations.”
According to ESPN, games involving Temple, Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, North Carolina A&T, and Mississippi Valley State are reportedly among the schools being investigated for "unusual betting activity."
There is so much money surrounding college sports that a scandal like this wasn't hard to predict. The Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) contracts are making teenagers multi-millionaires. Considering how easy it is to bet on yourself or your team and how easy it is to get into financial trouble by out-of-control gambling, it wouldn't surprise me if the problem isn't far more serious than the NCAA lets on.
