Federal prosecutors have filed additional counts against ex-Adidas rep Jim Gatto in CBB scandal:

[intlzncster]

Why the FBI would say Kansas was 'victimized' in their indictment is one of the most peculiar parts of this story. Why go out of your way to pre-clear the school by using that word in particular? Doesn't make any sense

The FBI doesn't really care about the schools. It doesn't care about the players. They need the schools to be 'victims' of their real target: the shoe companies and bag men.

The big charges are wire fraud and money laundering. This is not a recent article, but it explains the legal position:

Why is it against the law to give money to recruits? Former federal prosecutors explain

 

[Paesano]

Why is Emmert still alive?

 

[UConnNick]

Why is Emmert still alive?

Because he protects the NCAA's billions of $$$ cash machine like a mama bear protects her cubs. That's what the college presidents love about him because the money is all they care about. They've sold their so-called student-athletes down the river, traveling cross country to compete in these ridiculous, geographically insane conferences, missing classes for weeks at a time, all in pursuit of the almighty dollar. And to top off the hypocrisy, they pretend to care about academics and education. What a farce.

 

[huskiesouth]

The FBI doesn't really care about the schools. It doesn't care about the players. They need the schools to be 'victims' of their real target: the shoe companies and bag men.

The big charges are wire fraud and money laundering. This is not a recent article, but it explains the legal position:

Why is it against the law to give money to recruits? Former federal prosecutors explain

After multiple decades as a litigator (and of course wanting to win) , if I had to choose in these indictments, I’d choose the defense. Trying to paint the schools as the victims defies logic - the schools receive more revenue if their MBB teams are successful, the NCAA penalties are traditionally not extreme and hard to quantify monetarily as opposed to measuring the monies a school realizes from athletic success.

I realize it may sound cynical but cheating typically benefits a university, potential sanctions sound too hypothetical to result in a criminal conviction.

 

[intlzncster]

Because he protects the NCAA's billions of $$$ cash machine like a mama bear protects her cubs. That's what the college presidents love about him because the money is all they care about.

Same as Goodell in the NFL. And hence why you have the two most corrupt organizations in American sports (maybe Gymnastics now too tho).

 

[auror]

Why the FBI would say Kansas was 'victimized' in their indictment is one of the most peculiar parts of this story. Why go out of your way to pre-clear the school by using that word in particular? Doesn't make any sense

Even if their coaches were complicit, the "school" would still be the victim, as that is where the money is coming from and who is being defrauded.

 

[BUConn10]

Long but interesting perspective:

And yet, despite all the right in the article, just take a look at the comments. It's almost as if the author of the article was the one who committed these crimes, and now go check any comment section of any article pertaining to anything UConn related, the vitriol with which people spew hate towards UConn over the smallest things is why we are where we are in CBB. Public perception has always been kind and forgiving to school's like KU and poisonous to UConn.

 

[UConnNick]

Even if their coaches were complicit, the "school" would still be the victim, as that is where the money is coming from and who is being defrauded.

I don't know how the voodoo accounting methodology of these shoe companies is being used to hide what's really going on, but it seems to me that the only way the schools could be getting dinged for the cash payments is if they were getting deducted from the school's monthly contractual payments from their shoe company. To me, that would leave a reasonably easy to follow paper trail, so it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to do it that way.

I see it more as the schools knowingly participating in the whole deal, while using the shoe companies as sort of agents, creating a layer or buffer between them and the recruits/families. Under those circumstances, calling the schools "victims" is disingenuous at best.

I think the FBI sees it as quantifiable that schools will suffer some economic loss if they are found to have violated NCAA rules. Sanctions, loss of scholarships, postseason bans could all negatively affect the schools' bottom line. That's what makes them "victims", although those potential losses are difficult to quantify, and likely self-inflicted to a greater or lesser extent, depending on how much was known by school administrators and staff about what was going on.

The folks making theses deals apparently thought this was a win-win-win for everybody as long as the feds weren't involved. The schools were getting players they wanted, the shoe companies were signing players to be loyal to their brand after their college careers, and the intermediaries, including coaches and others, were making money off the deals. Everybody wins, until the FBI tears it all down.