Over two dozen charged in ‘massive scheme’ to rig college basketball games

Federal prosecutors charged 26 people in a massive college basketball point-shaving scheme Thursday, which involved numerous players and teams from NCAA Division I men’s basketball.

College basketball players were bribed to throw games and enrich sports gamblers during a recent period from September 2022 to February of last year.

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, David Metcalf, described the scheme as “massive” and an “international criminal conspiracy.”

“It enveloped the world of college basketball,” he said at a news conference in Philadelphia.

The gamblers often placed bets and then recruited players with the promise of sums in the tens of thousands if they could purposely underperform in their games. If the players properly underperformed, the gamblers would win their bets, often against the teams