Pitino knew about money being funneled to recruit
Pitino was "Coach-2" and apparently spoke with the Adidas executive regarding sending money to a recruit. What a hypocrit. He's spoken out about shoe companies involved in recruiting and was playing in the same mud pit with them anyway.
Edit: One of the mentions of Coach-2 in the documents is: "no one swings a bigger dick than Coach-2" at Adidas. All he has to do is call them and say "these are my guys" and they'll take care of it. (36d)
September 28th, 2017 at 12:43 PM ^
that says he needs to have a 10 day notice if he is being fired for cause. This is just Louisville trying to avoid their $44M buyout with him.
September 28th, 2017 at 11:11 AM ^
This sort of revelation is a big deal, though. These scandals are ubiquitous in college athletics, and yet head coaches everywhere manage to wash their hands of them and are never held accountable. Even the ones who get fired are usually fired because they "should have known" because there is no technical evidence that they did know.
September 28th, 2017 at 11:15 AM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 12:32 PM ^
Don't get me wrong, the news is big and will have big implications on college basketball. But the "crimes?" I find it hard to be outraged about guys giving dudes money to go to school A or endorse Sneaker B. This seems like a total victimless crime, and I have no idea why the FBI should be involved.
September 28th, 2017 at 12:38 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 3:53 PM ^
tax evasion. I can understand the argument that an apparel company should be able to pay a family as part of an "endorsement", even to a supposed amatuer but when those are six figure sums being paid untaxed, it's tax evasion, maybe money laundering, etc. We have rules about these things to reduce corruption.
Now, I think this is a very small scale of corruption and tax evasion compared to some other things like government contractor kickbacks, etc. and it seems like the FBI would have bigger fish to fry but perhaps because of the visibility of the situation, they felt it sends a message that might make it worth it. Also, we don't know what the resource allocation is at the FBI. Just because they have a few agents on this doesn't mean they don't have many times more agents on things we deem the "bigger fish".
September 28th, 2017 at 1:17 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 2:55 PM ^
Tax evasion and money laundering.
The NFL has put in place at least some attempt to grant certain, screened and vetted Financial Advisors the designation of being "NFLPA approved" so that young kids entering the league know that the FA has had some background checks.
Flipside for the FAs is that they get exclusive access to conduct Rookie Seminars on who and what to avoid when suddenly "Uncle Will" comes out of the woodwork or some other cousin tries to shake them down.
For the AAU kids and the shoe money, there is really no way to control it because these "advisors" are simply agents of the laundering and essentially the Bag Men.
September 28th, 2017 at 11:16 AM ^
Is that because the head coaches are usually smart enough not to make the calls themselves?
Or because the phones aren't usually tapped?
September 28th, 2017 at 1:42 PM ^
They can now hold head coaches accountable for the actions of their assistants without showing that the coach knew.
September 28th, 2017 at 10:56 AM ^
Decroded piece of crap!
September 28th, 2017 at 11:26 AM ^
you beat me to it
September 28th, 2017 at 4:42 PM ^
That pocket square looked like a Louisville Cardinal.
September 28th, 2017 at 10:57 AM ^
somehow this does not surprise me. Dirty Dirt from Dirtenburg.
September 28th, 2017 at 10:58 AM ^
gonna be a sloooooooow hard winter in the Bluegrass state
September 28th, 2017 at 11:13 AM ^
I haven't seen this publicised anywhere yet.
September 29th, 2017 at 3:21 AM ^
September 29th, 2017 at 3:21 AM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 10:58 AM ^
But he just released a statement Monday night, when all of this broke, that he was "shocked" to learn about stuff like this!!
Must have been "shocked" that it was released as public knowledge. I mean, how dare anyone accuse the great Rick Pitino of doing something wrong... Fucking piece of shit.
September 28th, 2017 at 11:19 AM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 11:24 AM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 1:43 PM ^
Here's his actual quote, which is even more mind-boggling now that we know he is directly implicated in the investigation:
Pitino, 65, released a statement after news of the charges was announced Tuesday, saying, "These allegations come as a complete shock to me."If true, I agree with the U.S. Attorney's Office that these third-party schemes, initiated by a few bad actors, operated to commit a fraud on the impacted universities and their basketball programs, including the University of Louisville," he said. "Our fans and supporters deserve better, and I am committed to taking whatever steps are needed to ensure those responsible are held accountable."
Really amazing.
September 28th, 2017 at 2:42 PM ^
Apparently he is presaging his trial and conviction.
September 28th, 2017 at 4:37 PM ^
Once he beats these totally unfounded charges, he'll spend the rest of his life tracking down the real killers.
September 29th, 2017 at 11:51 AM ^
"If true, I agree . . . actors, operated to commit a fraud". Sounds like an admission of guilt! How can he later say, well, I was one of the bad actors and part of these schemes, but I wasn't committing fraud.
I am pretty sure the FBI evidence will be enough, but I think it's funny he made this statement as "Coach-2".
September 28th, 2017 at 11:06 AM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 12:34 PM ^
"I'd like to think the last thing that went through his head, other than that [indictment], was to wonder how the hell [John Beilein] ever got the best of him."
September 28th, 2017 at 12:36 PM ^
Also:
September 28th, 2017 at 4:37 PM ^
Don't be so obtuse!
September 28th, 2017 at 10:29 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 11:08 AM ^
Allegations Involving Player-10 and University-6 First, GATTO, CODE, DAWKINS, and SOOD worked together to funnel $100,000 from Company-1 to the family of a high school basketball player (“Player-10”) in exchange for Player-10’s commitment to play at an NCAA Division I university whose athletic programs are sponsored by Company-1 (“University-6”), and in further exchange for a commitment from Player-10 to retain DAWKINS and SOOD, and to sign with Company-1, once Player-10 joined the NBA. DAWKINS told CW-1 and others on a recorded conversation that he did so at the request of a coach at University-6 (“Coach-2”), and call records show that GATTO spoke directly with Coach-2 multiple times in the days before Player-10 publicly committed to attending University-6. Moreover, because the payments to the family of Player-10 were both in violation of NCAA rules and illegal, they were disguised by GATTO, CODE, DAWKINS, and SOOD using fake purchase orders, invoices and related documents to make them appear to be payments from Company-1 to CODE’s company. As CODE explained to DAWKINS, while such payments are sometimes made “off the books,” for this particular payment, GATTO and CODE had identified it to Company-1 as “as a payment to my team, to my organization, so it’s on the books, [but] it’s not on the books for what it’s actually for.” Indeed, the money, once allocated by Company-1, was funneled back to DAWKINS to use to pay the father of Player-10 in cash. Allegations Involving Player-11 and University-6 Second, DAWKINS and AUGUSTINE agreed to facilitate payments to the family of another high school basketball player (“Player-11”) in exchange for Player-11’s commitment to play at University-6 and ultimately to retain DAWKINS’s services. While these payments were not directly funded by Company-1, they were made to benefit Company-1, which, as noted, sponsors University-6, and with the expectation that Company-1 would provide additional funding to AUGUSTINE in return. AUGUSTINE noted, “all [Coach-2] has to do is pick up the phone and call somebody [and say] these are my guys, they’re taking care of us.”
September 28th, 2017 at 11:09 AM ^
Also ~$2MM of Pitino's salary was paid by Adidas so . . . .
September 28th, 2017 at 11:17 AM ^
"... that's why he was fired"
Isn't he simply on unpaid administrative leave right now?
September 28th, 2017 at 11:22 AM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 12:26 PM ^
Why even go through the charade? Unless it was written by complete idiots, his contract is totally null and void at this point.
September 28th, 2017 at 12:35 PM ^
They're looking forward to a legal tussle over his $44 million buyout. They have every reason to honor the contract to the letter, and absolutely nothing to gain by not giving him his ten unpaid days.
September 28th, 2017 at 11:50 AM ^
"Unpaid Administrative Leave", in this case, seems like a polite way to set everything up for him to be terminated with cause, and I imagine this is at least a portion of the "cause" part of everything. I've heard of these being called "decision-making leaves" as well, wherein HR and your bosses debate your future, but in the case of Pitino, I don't know what there would be to say that would save his position.
September 28th, 2017 at 12:39 PM ^
Per NCAA vs Auburn / Cam Newton - since the payments were made by a third party to the players' families, isn't there not a violation?
September 28th, 2017 at 12:58 PM ^
The NCAA didn't have tape and film of Auburn coaches directing the third party to make the payments.
September 28th, 2017 at 11:13 AM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 11:19 AM ^
has been corrupting College basketball since the early 1980's.Most High School & AAU coaches are aware of that fact.Any College coach who is 'shocked' to discover that is a flat out liar.Many top notch players and their 'crew' get a piece of the action.Pitino & L'Ville are not the exception,that includes some of the so called 'clean' programs like Duke & MSU etc..The only question is if the Feds can nail all of them.I Coached HS B-Ball in Detroit in 70's thru 90's,even I knew what was going on so it strains credulity to think a College coach didn't know.
September 28th, 2017 at 2:50 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 11:22 AM ^
If this were happening a decade ago, I'd post the "O RLY" owl.
September 28th, 2017 at 11:27 AM ^
D.
U.
H.
September 28th, 2017 at 11:29 AM ^
While not surprising to any of us that he knew, it's surprising to me that the FBI can prove he knew. This is huge news on the evidentiary front. It takes this to an SMU level scandal.
Rick Pitino must have missed the Cris Carter TED Talk on "always have a fall-guy in your posse to take bullets for you".