What to Know
- Jury selection has begun in the trial of an aspiring agent and a former amateur coach charged with bribing big-school coaches
- The alleged bribes were to boost their business relationship with amateur basketball players
- The trial of business manager Christian Dawkins and ex-amateur league director Merl Code began Monday in Manhattan federal court
Jury selection has begun in the trial of an aspiring agent and a former amateur coach charged with bribing big-school coaches to boost their business relationship with amateur basketball players.
The trial of business manager Christian Dawkins and ex-amateur league director Merl Code began Monday in Manhattan federal court.
Testimony in a trial projected to last two weeks will surround bribes paid to an assistant coach at the University of South Carolina and later Oklahoma State University, an assistant coach at the University of Arizona and an assistant coach at the University of Southern California.
Those now ex-coaches have pleaded guilty to charges and await sentencing.
Judge Edgardo Ramos told prospective jurors that the scandal also affected Creighton University and Texas Christian University.
Code and Dawkins have pleaded not guilty.
Local
Former Adidas executive James Gatto, Dawkins and Code, a former Adidas consultant, were convicted in October 2018 of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for funneling illegal payments to families of recruits to Louisville, Kansas and North Carolina State.
Gatto got nine months in prison; Dawkins and Code got six months each. The judge said each can remain free until a federal appeals court decides whether to uphold their convictions.
