Central undercover FBI agent working NCAAB case accused of misconduct
On February 8, 2018, the Wall Street Journal published an update on the FBI investigation’s central undercover agent and what’s next.
Wall Street Journal writer Rebecca Davis O’Brien reported that the undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Agent central to the NCAA Men’s Basketball probe is being accused of misconduct.
This may blow a hole in the NCAAB investigation as he may not be able to be a witness, or at least a credible witness. He is being accused of:
"Misappropriating government money and spending it on gambling, food and beverages during the probe — The Justice Department launched a criminal investigation last year into the agent’s alleged behavior— If he is found culpable, it could compromise his ability to participate as a witness. – According to O’Brien’s sources."
Recruits, commits and their fans having been waiting on word from investigations stemming from the FBI Investigation and the investigations additional charges if any after a NIke HQ search and more.
O’Brien reached out to the FBI’s New York office and the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office and both declined to comment. The FBI investigation included “several” undercover agents, lead witness, Marty Blazer, who tipped off investigators, “at least” five tapped phone numbers and cash exchange according to the papers behind the indictments.
The central undercover agent who is under scrutiny, had suddenly stopped working on the case and was said to have had to take an unexpected trip overseas according to O’Brien. Fellow WSJ writer Nicole Hong had written an article discussing the validity of the FBI charges explaining the it may not be easy to find any federal laws that have been broken. Also, the push of the Feds to try to make the case that breaking NCAA rules is a federal crime.
"The investigation is unusual because while the alleged misconduct violates National Collegiate Athletic Association rules, some legal experts say it may not have necessarily broken federal law.All four coaches were charged with honest-services fraud conspiracy. The government accuses the coaches of depriving the universities of their “honest services” as university employees by soliciting and receiving bribes.Honest-services fraud is a crime under the federal wire-fraud statute, a broad law that is widely used by prosecutors to charge virtually any type of fraud that involves an email or phone call. Every defendant in this case was also charged with wire-fraud conspiracy."
A few weeks ago, Bruce Pascoe had reported that there was no evidence that the agent in question in Emmanuel Richardson’s case had ever attended a practice even though the agent said he had attended practices.
Little by little information is coming out on the FBI investigation. Next week, a judge will hear arguments to dismiss the Adidas executive on the grounds that, “The charges based on defendants’ arguments that no one was hurt, and no law was broken.”
This hearing results may set some precedence going forward for related Federal violations or any other FBI related charges. The NCAA is still investigating as is the PAC-12. We have predicted nothing will come from these investigations until after the NCAA Championship due to money, timing and the havoc it might cause, but who knows.
As far as the players in the PAC-12 allegedly named or inferred too in the indictment papers, USC has lost Deanthony Melton even though the NCAA cleared him of charges. For Arizona, former commit Javaughn Quinerly has decommitted and has since been selected to the McDonald’s All-American Game. Shareef O’Neal and Brandon Williams, Arizona’s two verbal commits, celebrated Senior Night on Friday night and have signed scholarship papers but not an NLI.
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Resolution on the FBI charges on Arizona’s former assistant coach and any ramifications to the program from any governing body (NCAA included) cannot come soon enough for recruiting purposes but not necessarily for this season. The 2018 NCAAB classes are solidifying and Duke, who recruits feel is a clean program with no risk of getting in any trouble, is landing top five-star talent. So we wait, we steam a bit and we pray hard everything works out for the best.