XPost: stl.general, alt.politics.nationalism.black, rec.sport.ba   
   ketball.college   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: noreply@dirge.harmsk.com   
      
   ST. LOUIS — A sweeping federal indictment spanning three years, accusing   
   26 people of point-shaving in college basketball games, was unsealed   
   Thursday and, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, it “enveloped   
   17 NCAA schools, 39 players and a few dozen games that were fixed.”   
      
   Saint Louis University was one of the schools named as having played in   
   a fixed contest. Former player Bradley Ezewiro was one of a group of   
   college basketball players charged in the indictment. Ezewiro played at   
   SLU in the 2023-24 season and had been with four universities in four   
   years.   
      
   In his lone season with the Billikens, Ezewiro averaged 12 points and   
   6.2 rebounds per game.   
      
   The fixed games include contests involving Nicholls State, Tulane,   
   Northwestern State, Saint Louis, LaSalle, Fordham, Buffalo, DePaul,   
   Robert Morris, Southern Miss, North Carolina A&T, Kennesaw State, Coppin   
   State, New Orleans, Abilene Christian, Eastern Michigan and Alabama   
   State, according to NBC News.   
      
   The five-point spread   
   According to the indictment, in mid to late February 2024, two of the   
   'fixers' in the scandal recruited players on the St. Louis Billikens to   
   participate in the game-fixing scheme. Prosecutors allege Ezewiro and   
   another unnamed player “agreed to help ensure that St. Louis failed to   
   cover the first-half spread” in a game against Duquesne.   
      
   Court records said the game took place on Feb. 20, 2024, at UPMC Cooper   
   Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh, making it a road game for SLU. Prosecutors   
   allege the "fixers" wagered approximately $242,000 that Duquesne would   
   be ahead by more than five points at halftime.   
      
   Duquesne led 41–27 at the half, easily exceeding the five-point spread.   
      
   According to U.S. Attorney David Metcalf, the scheme involved giving   
   players between $10,000 and $30,000 to underperform in a game their team   
   was already predicted to lose, allowing gamblers to profit by betting on   
   the manipulated outcome. The idea was to have said team lose by a margin   
   greater than the point-spread of the game.   
      
   “When criminals pollute the purity of sports by manipulating   
   competition, it doesn’t just imperil the integrity of sports betting   
   markets,” Metcalf said at Thursday’s press conference. “It imperils the   
   integrity of sport itself.”   
      
   Metcalf said that once the player was bribed, organizers of the   
   point-shaving scheme would wager tens to hundreds of thousands of   
   dollars.   
      
   He said the scheme included some of the nation’s most celebrated   
   basketball conferences.   
      
   "This was a massive scheme. It enveloped the world of college   
   basketball," said Metcalf. "It included conferences such as the Big   
   East, the Atlantic 10 Conference, the Sun Belt, the Horizon League. It   
   involved games against nationally ranked programs. It was a significant   
   corruption of the integrity of sports."   
      
   Former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, now a co-deputy director   
   of the FBI, said federal authorities will continue to pursue those   
   involved.   
      
   “Those who believed they could operate in the shadows, defraud the   
   public and escape justice were wrong,” he said at Thursday’s press   
   conference. “The Department of Justice and this FBI will not tolerate   
   the exploitation of the American institutions for criminal profit. Nor   
   will we allow victims of this crime, the fans who fill the arenas, the   
   students and alumni who believe in fair competition, and the American   
   public who expect integrity in the institutions they love to be denied   
   justice."   
      
   What is point shaving?   
   To understand how this kind of scheme works from a personal perspective,   
   5 On Your Side spoke with Bret Hood, a retired FBI special agent.   
      
   "With point shaving, what you have is you have either a college or   
   professional athlete who is intentionally altering the game by their   
   play, by their lack of play, in order to obtain some kind of incentive,   
   usually a cash bonus from a gambling bet or from someone paying them off   
   like a bribe," Hood said.   
      
   Prosecutors said the scheme lasted from 2022 through 2025, spanning   
   multiple basketball seasons.   
      
   Hood said once investigators uncover one altered game, cases like this   
      
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