Federal Charges Rock College Hoops as Bribery and Game-Fixing Scheme Uncovered
PHILADELPHIA - College basketball is facing a seismic scandal after federal prosecutors announced charges against 20 men accused of orchestrating a widespread bribery and game-fixing operation that touched nearly 30 Division I games and involved dozens of players across more than 17 schools.
At the center of the alleged scheme are Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley - two men already under indictment for their roles in a separate NBA gambling case - and former LSU and NBA guard Antonio Blakeney. According to prosecutors, the trio worked together to recruit active college athletes during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, offering bribes ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 per game in exchange for shaving points - deliberately ensuring their teams failed to cover the spread.
The scope of the operation is staggering. Prosecutors say 39 players were involved, and the list of affected programs includes DePaul, Nicholls State, Tulane, La Salle, Fordham, Northwestern State, Saint Louis, Buffalo, Robert Morris, Southern Miss, North Carolina A&T, Coppin State, University of New Orleans, Abilene Christian, Alabama State, and Kennesaw State.
Four players currently active in college basketball were among those charged: Kennesaw State’s Simeon Cottle, Eastern Michigan’s Carlos Hart, Delaware State’s Camian Shell, and Texas Southern’s Oumar Koureissi.
“This is a prosecution of the criminal corruption of college athletics,” said David Metcalf, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
But the college game wasn’t where this all started.
According to the indictment, the roots of the scheme trace back to 2022, when Fairley and Hennen allegedly approached Blakeney while he was playing for the Jiangsu Dragons in China’s top pro league. They reportedly asked him to manipulate his performance in exchange for cash - and Blakeney agreed.
In one March 2023 game where Jiangsu was an 11.5-point underdog, Blakeney, who had been averaging over 32 points per game, scored just 11. Jiangsu lost by 31.
Prosecutors say Fairley and Hennen wagered nearly $200,000 on that game alone.
Later that same month, Blakeney allegedly informed the group he wouldn’t play in an upcoming game but that his replacement would be “in” on the plan. The group placed another $100,000 in bets. At the end of the season, Blakeney was reportedly paid $200,000 for his cooperation.
The success of the scheme overseas apparently emboldened the group to expand stateside. They set their sights on college basketball, targeting players at mid-major programs - often on teams with losing records - where oversight might be thinner and the players more vulnerable to financial temptation.
The charges against Hennen and Fairley go beyond college hoops. The two are also facing federal charges in New York for allegedly running a gambling ring tied to the NBA, where they are accused of purchasing insider information - including injury updates - to place profitable bets.
That case even touches NBA names like Terry Rozier, and Hennen is separately charged in a poker scam that allegedly used the names of former NBA players, including Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones, to lure victims. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
While the cases in New York and Pennsylvania involve overlapping defendants, prosecutors emphasized that they are distinct in how they were carried out. “There are defendants in common but fundamentally this is a different scheme,” Metcalf said.
As the legal fallout unfolds, the NCAA is also taking action. Over the past year, the organization has ruled more than a dozen Division I men’s basketball players permanently ineligible for game manipulation, betting violations, and failure to cooperate with investigations.
“Protecting competition integrity is of the utmost importance for the NCAA,” said NCAA President Charlie Baker. “We are thankful for law enforcement agencies working to detect and combat integrity issues and match manipulation in college sports.”
At this week’s NCAA convention in Maryland, officials addressed the growing threat of legalized sports betting, particularly the impact of prop bets - wagers on individual player performances. Mark Hicks, the NCAA’s managing director of enforcement, said that players at smaller programs have become prime targets for these schemes.
The NCAA has been lobbying for a nationwide ban on college prop bets, and while four states have already removed them from the market, many others still allow them. Baker didn’t mince words in his address to NCAA members.
“Our enforcement team uncovered student-athletes who manipulated their performance to win bets, and we caught coaches trading inside information, and we took action, and we banned those responsible,” Baker said. “But the sports betting community’s response to that was a shoulder shrug.”
He noted that while sportsbooks have pulled some NBA prop bets due to risk, many continue to offer them for college games - a decision he says puts student-athletes in harm’s way.
“In some respects, the sports betting industry’s drive for profits is coming at the expense of our student-athletes, and it must stop.”
The message is clear: this isn’t just about a few bad actors. It’s about a system that left the door open - and a reckoning that’s only just begun.