GRIMY NEWS ALERT: The Southern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman announced the conviction of Christian Dawkins and Merl Code for their sinister role in a brazen scheme to bribe NCAA Division I men’s college basketball coaches.
In a two-and-a-half-week trial before U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos, Dawkins and Code were found guilty of conspiring to pay off coaches with the intent of manipulating student-athletes for their personal gain. Dawkins was additionally charged with a substantive count of bribery.
Both defendants had previously been convicted in a scheme that saw payments funneled from Adidas to the family of a high-school college basketball player, while the school remained blissfully unaware.
Berman made it clear that these convictions are not just the end of this particular case but a stark warning to those contemplating similar criminal endeavors: ‘That bribery is a crime, one this Office is prepared to charge criminally and prosecute to the full extent of the law.’
According to the charges, Dawkins, once employed by a major sports agency, orchestrated payments to coaches like Lamont Evans at the University of South Carolina. He also introduced Richardson, an assistant coach at the University of Arizona, to pay off in exchange for steering athletes his way.
After being terminated from his original job, Dawkins founded the ‘Dawkins Company’ with an undercover officer and continued his corrupt operations, including paying a $5,000 cash bribe to Richardson. The corruption did not stop there; Sood, another financial advisor, and Blazer, a financial advisor cooperating with the government, were also involved.
With today’s convictions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has again shown its commitment to rooting out corruption in sports, sending a chilling message to any who would dare to follow in the footsteps of Dawkins and Code.
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Key Facts
- State: New York
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Public Corruption|White Collar Crime|Organized Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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