Arizona Basketball Asst Coach Emmanuel Richardson arrested by FBI in bribery case

This is a major bombshell. Arizona assistant coach Emmanuel Richardson was arrested on FBI charges that he paid players to come to Arizona. What does this mean for Arizona?

Early Tuesday morning news broke that four assistant coaches were arrested in connection to a federal fraud and corruption case. Those coaches, including beloved Arizona Assistant Coach Emmanual Richardson (Book) also include USC’s Tony Bland, Oklahoma State’s Lamont Evans, and Auburn’s Chuck Person.

Many others were arrested as well, including top Adidas executive James Gatto (Director of global marketing for basketball). One complaint alleges a cooperating witness in an FCC case, after being charged in that case, had in the past engaged in this type of conduct. He told the FBI, “I’m aware of people who are willing to do this,” thus we assume to help his cause.

Ten people were arrested (four coaches, three advisors, one in three separate complaints, there are two schemes:

1. College assistant coaches took cash bribes from managers and advisors in exchange for directing recruits to the schools (Book was part of this scheme).
2. Managers and Financial Advisors and a sportswear company worked together to funnel money to the countries top recruits as much as $100,000 for the players to play for the school.

It’s clear that the players are not being held responsible because they trusted the coaches in scheme one if you listen to Joon H. Kim (Acting United States Attorney in New York), who spoke today at the FBI press conference. He said that coaches lied to the players about the financial advisors and built them up. Kim explained that Person specifically lied about a financial advisor, and assured a players mother that he used that advisor and more.

Gatto and two others sent bribe money sent six-figure bribes to three top recruits to commit to Adidas schools. This is not what Book did, he allegedly got money to a recent commit and got $20K in bribes** (See below according to Tucson.com). Kim also said that the schools and the players are the victims.

"** Between February and September, co-defendants Christian Dawkins and Munish Sood paid Richardson $20,000 in bribes, “some of which Richardson appears to have kept for himself and some of which he appears to have provided to at least one prospective high school basketball player” in order to recruit the player to come to UA, the complaint says."

"In exchange for the money, Richardson agreed “to use his influence over the student-athletes he coached to pressure them” to hire Dawkins as manager and Sood as financial adviser, according to the complaint."

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According to documents released by the Justice Department, this investigation began in 2015. The investigation included coaches sending money to players or the players’ families to get a commitment from the said player. The documents do not specifically name Jahvon Quinerly as the player that Book paid to come to Arizona, however, based on assumption and the words stated it is more than likely Quinerly.

In the released document, the FBI agent types that “Based on my review of publicly available information that University-4 is a public research university located in Arizona.” Along with defendants Christian Dawkins and Munish Sood, who paid Richardson at least 20k, they conspired to recruit one of the “top point guards in the country.” It also states that said player was on a visit to Arizona University on or around June 25, those dates correlate with the exact dates that Jahvon Quinerly visited the program. The final notice was that said player committed to University-4 on or around August 9th, Quinerly committed to Arizona on August 8th.

Although an assistant coach is a person who committed this crime, under NCAA rule, the head coach is still responsible everything. If this all turns out to be true, Sean Miller could either be fired or suspended for an undetermined amount of time. The Lorenzo Romar hiring could end being a blessing in disguise if anything were to happen to Sean Miller.

Arizona’s Media Day scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed:

Arizona Athletics released a statement:

Larry Scott issued a statement:

USC’s Athletic Director Lynn Swan released a statement as well:

University of South Carolina Statement:

This is not a pretty sight for Arizona’s Men’s Basketball program. As the No. 1 ranked recruiting class for 2018 could be in significant jeopardy. But we do not know and will have to wait until things unfold. It could be a very long process.

With a class that includes Shareef O’Neal, Brandon Williams, and Quinerly the Cats are in contention for many other of the top recruits in the country. One has to wonder, just how long has Emmanuel Richardson been doing this for Arizona? Could he possibly have paid any current players to come to Arizona as well?

FBI Press Conference in New York: Skip ahead to 14:00:

Must Read: More on Arizona Basketball from ZZ..

One has to wonder, just how long has Emmanuel Richardson been doing this for Arizona? Could he possibly have paid any current players to come to Arizona as well? We hope not! We hope that Miller was not aware, but that may not save his job. Having an Associate Coach in the program who is a former head coach is a silver lining, worse case. Pray, breathe, and people in the USA are still innocent unless proven guilty. THIS IS HUGE! Don’t be shocked if this filters down to the AAU coaches, and Nike is next, there is an FBI tip line.