Feds in Philly have charged dozens of people, including players, in a scheme to fix NCAA and Chinese basketball games
Some of the bets in the "point-shaving" operation were for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and were placed at Rivers Casino in Philadelphia.
Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia have charged dozens of people in a wide-ranging scheme to fix basketball games in recent years in the NCAA and the Chinese professional league, according to court documents unsealed Thursday morning.
According to indictments targeting about two dozen people, sports gamblers and others worked to recruit players to participate in a variety of schemes to impact the games, including a “point shaving” operation in which players were bribed to underperform, and bettors would cast wagers against that player’s team.
Some of the bets were for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and were placed at Rivers Casino in Philadelphia, the indictment said.
Players involved included Antonio Blakeney, a onetime Chicago Bulls player who later played for the Jiangsu Dragons in China, prosecutors said, as well as a number of Division 1 college players from smaller schools, including Tulane University, Nicholls State University, Northwestern State University, and North Philadelphia’s La Salle University.
Blakeney, prosecutors said, at one point received a $200,000 cash payment for his role in the scheme — which another defendant dropped into a storage unit Blakeney had in Florida.
Blakeney then went on to help recruit college players to participate in a similar scheme targeting NCAA games, prosecutors said. The operation involved 39 players on more than 17 Division 1 teams, prosecutors said, with bettors wagering millions of dollars on at least 29 different games.
The allegations are similar in theme to those leveled last fall against NBA players including Terry Rozier, who has also been federally charged with altering his performance to benefit gamblers.
One of the gamblers charged Thursday was Shane Hennen, a former Philadelphia resident and prolific high-stakes sports bettor who had already been charged alongside Rozier and was accused of participating in that scandal as well.
In the indictment made public Thursday, prosecutors said Hennen — who maintained a brash presence on social media — was similarly boastful while talking to his co-conspirators.
In April 2023, prosecutors said, Hennen sent a text to another schemer offering reassurance about a game involving Blakeney.
“Nothing gu[a]rantee[d] in this world but death taxes and Chinese basketball,” Hennen wrote.
This is a developing story that will be updated.