Chuck Person

[au701948 996]

5 minutes ago, mustache eagle said:

Well that essentially puts Bama in almost the same position as auburn doesn't it?  Although persons transgressions were "bigger" they are similar.

im kind of poking at everyone who sees the AU basketball program getting crushed and pearl fired.  If it happens to us then shouldn't it happen to the bams?

Yes, it does seem somewhat similar I suppose. The big difference is Person was indicted and arrested yet Auburn only suspended him the last time I looked. At least Alabama cut Baker off at the knees, just like we should have done to Person.

[AUDub 11,131]

8 minutes ago, au701948 said:

Yes, it does seem somewhat similar I suppose. The big difference is Person was indicted and arrested yet Auburn only suspended him the last time I looked. At least Alabama cut Baker off at the knees, just like we should have done to Person.

He resigned. With Chuck we're just crossing our Ts and dotting our Is on the legal side before we pull the trigger. 

[GwillMac6 20,601]

• Mark SchlabachESPN Senior Writer

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The FBI announced Tuesday that 10 people, including four college basketball assistant coaches, were arrested as part of a three-year investigation into bribes and other corruption in the sport.

Assistant coaches from Arizona, Auburn, Louisville, Miami, Oklahoma State and USC were implicated in the investigation, and on Wednesday, Louisville announced that athletic director Tom Jurich and longtime basketball coach Rick Pitino have been placed on administrative leave.

Joon H. Kim, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told reporters that the investigation is ongoing. There might be additional arrests, and more schools might be involved.

Court records and sealed complaints released by the U.S. Attorney's office reveal an elaborate, clandestine FBI investigation that has involved wiretaps, surveillance video, undercover agents and cooperating witnesses. Here is a look at some of the findings:

First, the advisers and coaches

 

Chuck Person is a central figure in the corruption scandal that led to the arrests of 10 people on Tuesday. Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire

On May 6, 2016, Louis Martin "Marty" Blazer III, a Pittsburgh-based financial adviser, was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with wire fraud and accused of siphoning $2.35 million from the accounts of several professional athletes in order to invest in movie projects and make Ponzi-like payments. According to the SEC's complaint, when its examiners uncovered the unauthorized withdrawals and asked Blazer to explain them, he lied and produced falsified documents in an attempt to hide his misconduct.

The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Blazer, who founded Blazer Capital Management as a concierge firm targeting pro athletes and other high-worth individuals as clients, took the money from five clients without their authorization from October 2010 to January 2013 to invest in two movie projects. The commission alleged that Blazer had personal financial interest in the development of the films "Mafia the Movie" and "Sibling."

 

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The commission's complaint said Blazer pitched the movie project to an athlete as an investment opportunity, but that client "expressly refused to make the investment." Blazer allegedly took $550,000 from the client's account anyway and invested in the film projects. When the client later learned about Blazer's actions and demanded repayment, Blazer took money out of a different athlete's account to make repayment in "Ponzi-like fashion."

On Aug. 4 of this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Blazer to make restitution of $1.8 million and to pay a civil penalty of $150,000. The commission had barred him from the industry in May 2016. As part of a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's office, he agreed to plead guilty to securities fraud, aggravated identity theft, false statements and documents, and two counts of wire fraud, according to a Sept. 19 cooperation agreement.

It wasn't the first time Blazer was investigated by financial regulators. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, an unidentified NFL player filed a complaint against Blazer in March 2011 with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), an industry-funded group that regulates financial advisers and the firms where they work.

The football player alleged that he lost $4 million because Blazer misappropriated or mismanaged the player's accounts from 2001 to 2009. Blazer told FINRA investigators that the player had recklessly withdrawn money from his accounts, forcing Blazer's firm to sell other assets in order to generate cash. An arbitrator awarded the football player $850,000 in May 2012.

In 2015, Blazer was also linked to an investigation of improper cash payments to University of North Carolina football players. A grand jury indicted former Tar Heels player Christopher Hawkins for violating the state's sports agent law by giving money to a UNC player and illegally contacting another about signing a contract. During the investigation, former UNC linebacker Robert Quinn told state investigators that Hawkins gave Quinn money to steer him to Blazer and agent Peter Schaffer, according to court documents. Kendric Burney, the other former UNC player, told investigators that Hawkins arranged and attended Burney's meetings with Blazer and Schaffer.

U.S. Department of Justice documents released Tuesday indicate Blazer also was accused of a 14-year-long wire fraud scheme in which he made "payments and loans to NCAA athletes in order to induce those student-athletes to retain the defendant as a financial advisor and/or business manager."

Blazer also agreed to one other condition as part of his plea agreement: He became a cooperating witness for the FBI, providing information that sparked the investigation into the relationship between college basketball coaches, financial advisers, sports agents, marketing officials and apparel company employees in recruiting NBA-bound players.

Sometime during the fall of 2016, a mutual friend introduced Blazer to Rashan Michel, a former NBA and Southeastern Conference referee. After leaving his NBA referee role in 2001, Michel opened Thompson Bespoke Clothiers in Atlanta, which sold high-end, custom-tailored suits. His clients included NFL players such as Todd Gurley, Teddy Bridgewater, Sammy Watkins and Mike Evans, among others. In 2014, Michel designed the suits worn by the top seven picks in the NFL draft, according to his social media account.

This past spring, former LSU tailback Leonard Fournette and former Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson were among the players who wore Michel's suits on the first night of the NFL draft.

Michel, 43, attended Talladega College, a historically black college in Talladega, Alabama, and worked as an NBA referee for four seasons beginning in 1997, league spokesman Tim Frank told ESPN in 2011. At the time, Frank wouldn't say why Michel left the league. According to Basketball-Reference.com, Michel worked 212 NBA games as an official.

In an interview with Stacks Magazine in 2014, Michel said he couldn't find work after leaving pro basketball. He started selling clothes for a clothier in Chicago and then spent six months studying under a master tailor in Canada. He launched Thompson Bespoke Clothiers in 2007, according to state of Georgia records. He had recently moved to Charlotte and planned to open a second store there, according to a post on his Instagram account.

Michel has been in the spotlight before. On March 30, 2011, he confronted former NBA star Dominique Wilkins while Wilkins was wrapping up his broadcasting duties after a Hawks-Magic game in Atlanta. A video of the incident obtained by TMZ, which was taken by a fan with a cellphone, showed a person identified as Wilkins throwing at least two punches at a man in the first row before he was pulled away. After yanking off his tie and tossing aside his suit jacket, the 6-foot-8 Wilkins tried to get back at the man before several people stepped in, pushing him onto the court, according to a 2011 ESPN.com story.

Michel told Atlanta police that Wilkins owed him $12,500 for custom-made suits; Wilkins said he believed the suits were a gift. Michel was charged with two counts of misdemeanor simple battery and suffered a black eye. The charges were later dropped.

Michel called "The Frank and Wanda Morning Show" on WVEE-FM in Atlanta the next morning to give his side of the story, claiming Wilkins threw the first punch.

"I went down and said, 'Let's handle this like men, work out a payment plan,'" Michel said. "The next thing I know ... the security guard grabbed me and then [Wilkins] punches me."

In October 2011, Michel sued Wilkins and the Atlanta Spirit LLC, then-owners of the Hawks, and claimed he suffered physical and emotional pain and public humiliation as a result of the incident; Michel said Wilkins repeatedly punched him without provocation. Michel said he also lost his part-time job as a Southeastern Conference basketball referee because of the fight. A conference official told ESPN that Michel's last assignment was a women's nonconference game in December 2010.

After the mutual friend introduced Michel to Blazer, Michel told Blazer -- in a series of phone calls in the fall of 2016 -- that Auburn assistant coach Chuck Person needed money. "In exchange for such money, Person would agree to steer student-athletes to [Auburn's] basketball team to retain [Blazer's] financial advisory and business management services," according to the complaint.

Person, who is Auburn's all-time leading scorer and helped the Tigers reach three straight NCAA tournaments, was the No. 4 pick of the Indiana Pacers in the 1986 NBA draft. He was the 1987 NBA Rookie of the Year and played for five teams from 1986 to 2000, earning more than $23 million in salary. A former assistant in the NBA and Korea, Person joined head coach Bruce Pearl's staff at Auburn in 2014. Person was promoted to associate head coach the next season.

During a telephone call between Michel and Blazer on Sept. 8, 2016, according to the complaint, Michel said he had access to team locker rooms and players, and also boasted about being able to connect Blazer with other coaches. "The good thing about it is," Michel said, "I got all the college coaches right now because, guess what, I'm the one that's with them. I make all their suits.

"The [expletive] basketball guys [get] way more money than these [expletive] football guys," Michel told Blazer. "We can get us [expletive] 10 basketball players in the next five years and we gonna ... have to sit back and do absolutely nothing."

Michel informed Blazer that Person needed a $60,000 loan, and that Auburn was going to have "three or four pros come out a year. [He's] got one or two of them that's gonna be pretty high draft picks." Michel said Person would pay back the money over a 24-month period. During later conversations, Blazer and Michel discussed the loan being forgiven if Person delivered players.

On Nov. 29, 2016, Person and Michel met with Blazer at a restaurant near Auburn's campus. Blazer was wearing a miniature video camera and recording device, and FBI agents monitored the meeting, according to the complaint. During the meeting, Person agreed to accept $50,000 in bribe payments from Blazer.

According to the complaint, Michel explained that Person would receive $5,000 in cash that day and three additional payments of $15,000. Person signed a promissory note and then asked if he could receive $10,000 up front. Blazer agreed to wire him an additional $5,000. Michel sent Blazer the information needed to wire money to Person's bank account, and the money was transferred the next day.

On Dec. 12, Person, Michel and Blazer met with an unidentified Auburn player at a Manhattan hotel room. The Tigers were in New York to play Boston College in the Under Armour Reunion at Madison Square Garden. The meeting was again videotaped by Blazer, and Blazer told the player that he wanted to "make sure you [have] a face to put with the voice and the name or whatever, so ya know, so when we do get together ... you're good with everything."

The player told Blazer that he was good with whatever arrangement Person was comfortable with. "I trust him 100 percent," the player said. During the Dec. 12 meeting, Blazer gave Person approximately $15,000 in cash.

Person told the player: "The most important thing is that you ... don't say nothing to nobody. ... But don't share with your sisters, don't share with any of the teammates, that's very important cause this is a violation ... of rules, but this is how the NBA players get it done. They get early relationships, and they form partnerships, they form trust."

He also warned the player: "Your personality and the way you do things can't change. Don't flaunt the stuff you get and, you know, don't change the way you speak to people, that's very important, too."

According to a phone call that was intercepted by an FBI wiretap on Dec. 17, Person told the unidentified player's mother that her son "is going to be good enough to go first round. I've talked to a bunch of people ... and I want him to leave to play in the NBA." Person told her that he had a financial adviser he wanted her to work with, and that Blazer had worked as his adviser and former Auburn star Charles Barkley's adviser, neither of which was true. Finally, according to the FBI, Person told the player's mother that he wasn't "getting anything" for making the connection.

Person also told the player's mother that Blazer would start giving her $5,000 or so per month, "so that way, you don't have to worry about anything."

On Dec. 18, after the Auburn Tigers recorded a 76-74 home win versus Mercer, Blazer met with the player's mother and stepfather at Person's house. Person explained to them how the arrangement would work and explained that they didn't have to sign anything.

"Your word is good enough for him [Blazer], and your word is good enough for me," Person told them. "When [the player] gets drafted in June, then they'll make a formal signing to be a financial adviser. Now, he is not an agent, so he can't do any contracts. So when [the player] starts getting paid, what percentage of money you're going to send to [Blazer] for him to invest is going to be up to you guys. But [the player] should invest a large portion of it, if not all of it, and, uh, you shouldn't work with more than one financial agent."

Blazer indicated he'd pay the player's parents a few thousand dollars a month for the next four months and gave them $1,000 during the initial meeting. Blazer wired $10,000 to Person's bank account on Dec. 27 and an additional $11,500 on Jan. 10, 2017, according to the FBI.

During a telephone call with Blazer, Person said he was giving Michel a portion of the bribes, but complained that Michel was trying to "double dip." But that's what Person tried to do when he arranged for an unidentified financial adviser in Alabama to meet with a second unnamed Auburn player. The meeting occurred at Person's house in January, and the FBI believed that he "initially intended for the [advisor] and [Blazer] to jointly represent Player-2, so that Person could receive money from both individuals."

When the second adviser told Person that he didn't want to make the proposed payments, Person advised the second player's mother that she should go only with Blazer. She thanked him for "putting the right people around us."

On Jan. 5, Michel met with Blazer at a restaurant in Atlanta and discussed a proposal in which Blazer would pay Michel on a monthly basis to connect Blazer with other coaches who were willing to accept bribes. Blazer paid Michel tens of thousands of dollars from January 2017 to about September, according to the FBI, and Michel helped facilitate the payment of $25,000 to an unidentified staff member of another school. The staff member received $5,000 during an initial meeting and an additional $20,000 in later meetings in New York and Atlanta.

The FBI said Person received a total of $91,500 from Blazer, and Person claimed to have given approximately $11,000 to the first player's mother and $7,500 to the second player's mother. Michel received $49,000 for arranging the meetings with coaches and players' parents.

Person was arrested Tuesday morning and was released on $25,000 bond. Michel was arrested in Charlotte on Tuesday and appeared in front of U.S. Magistrate Court Judge David Keesler, who ordered him to appear in New York in two weeks.

Auburn officials suspended Person without pay on Tuesday, and the university said it was "saddened, angry and disappointed" by the news. Auburn officials have hired a Birmingham law firm to investigate the allegations.

Auburn president Steven Leath told ESPN that he received a call Monday night and was advised that an FBI agent wanted to meet with Leath the next morning, without any indication of what the meeting was about. Leath said he wasn't worried, because he assumed it had to do with his security clearance related to certain projects and research work on campus -- not about athletics.

An FBI agent arrived shortly before 8 a.m. on Tuesday. "They told me that as a result of a long, complex investigation, they were going to make arrests and make charges related to NCAA basketball. In fact, they had already arrested one of our assistant coaches earlier that morning," Leath said.

But the university did get some reassuring news later from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which was that the university itself was not the target of the investigation, Leath said.

"I think it says clearly that they don't think there's some structural problem or some broader problem at the university, that this was an isolated individual," he said. "I don't think anybody else knew. I don't think there's any indication at Auburn that anybody else knew about this."

Leath said coaches have identified the two student-athletes referenced in the FBI's investigation, but he would not name them, and he said the school, which has hired an outside law firm to investigate the men's basketball program, will wait for information from that review to determine what further actions, if any, need to be taken.

"It's very disappointing," Leath said. "I think university presidents are always concerned that the tail doesn't wag the dog. And then you see things like this going on under people's noses, and you wonder how it's even possible."

[AUDub 11,131]

That's a good, thorough breakdown. 

[Beaker 2,457]

Wow.....Not sure what to say.  Incredibly disappointing.  Chuck made over $20 mil in the NBA and he is doing this?  

Was he doing this so we could get players or so he could profit himself?

Such a quandary.  

[AUDub 11,131]

5 minutes ago, Beaker said:

Wow.....Not sure what to say.  Incredibly disappointing.  Chuck made over $20 mil in the NBA and he is doing this?  

Pro athletes pissing away their fortune is hardly a new phenomenon. 

Quote

Was he doing this so we could get players or so he could profit himself?

Almost certainly in it for the money. Read what the DOJ released. There was no competitive advantage gained. He was enriching himself. He was apparently an easy target because he needed money according to Michel, one of the defendants.

 

[3rdgeneration 6,469]

What really makes me angry is that those parents and those kids trusted him and he was just exploiting them for his own selfish greed.  He had the ability to be a mentor and advisor and he lied to them and used them.  Not only that, but he apparently brought in our arch enemy as his buddy in all of this. And this guy had worked in the NCAA.  How stupid is he??? At least they can't say they were better than us.  This whole thing is disgusting.  I think we need to strip Chuck Person's name from any record at Auburn University.  

[cptau 169]

40 minutes ago, 3rdgeneration said:

What really makes me angry is that those parents and those kids trusted him and he was just exploiting them for his own selfish greed.  He had the ability to be a mentor and advisor and he lied to them and used them.  Not only that, but he apparently brought in our arch enemy as his buddy in all of this. And this guy had worked in the NCAA.  How stupid is he??? At least they can't say they were better than us.  This whole thing is disgusting.  I think we need to strip Chuck Person's name from any record at Auburn University.  

Some one who makes $240,000 a year as an Auburn coach and has another $100,000 or so from an NBA pension, and played 14 years and coached 13 in the NBA has to do this???   Why?  Alimony, gambling habit, just can’t manage money?  

He really will be broke after the government and its attorneys drag him thought court causing him to pay fines and defense attorneys.   After jail he’ll be lucky to manage a trailer park  

 

[PoetTiger 1,896]

At this point the worst thing I see happening is players who took money potentially losing their college eligibility. All schools involved less Louisville appear to have had no knowledge of what was going on. Pearl’s name was not mentioned at anytime in any of Persons convos.  Nor was Jay Jacobs. Not once did Person say BP knew or condoned what he was doing.  This is a criminal investigation, not an NCAA investigation. They are out to catch criminals, I don’t think they have a vested interest in eligibility, potential NCAA infractions, etc. They want to bust people who broke the law. The question is what will Auburn do now....particularly with the players involved, were there other coaches??? Did BP really know?Did the AD dept not keep appropriate tabs on its program? IMO the NCAA could never complete a thorough investigation of this magnitude...this one just luckily fell in their laps.

[GwillMac6 20,601]

Just now, PoetTiger said:

At this point the worst thing I see happening is players who took money potentially losing their college eligibility. All schools involved less Louisville appear to have had no knowledge of what was going on. Pearl’s name was not mentioned at anytime in any of Persons convos.  Nor was Jay Jacobs. Not once did Person say BP knew or condoned what he was doing.  This is a criminal investigation, not an NCAA investigation. They are out to catch criminals, I don’t think they have a vested interest in eligibility, potential NCAA infractions, etc. They want to bust people who broke the law. The question is what will Auburn do now....particularly with the players involved, were there other coaches??? Did BP really know?Did the AD dept not keep appropriate tabs on its program? IMO the NCAA could never complete a thorough investigation of this magnitude...this one just luckily fell in their laps.

IF that is true then made Person royally f#$%^& us because of his greed. Losing our 2 best current players and a 5 star recruit for next class. 

[abw0004 10,104]

This is why I wanted to reserve judgement until I got all of the facts.  Now we know that Pearl and JJ did not know anything about what was going on.  This will sting, indeed, as we will take a few steps back for this season, but there is no reason why 2018 and beyond we can't keep taking steps forward.  Let's see how this shakes out, but this will not be a death penalty for Auburn basketball.

[TigerOne 1,138]

6 hours ago, PoetTiger said:

At this point the worst thing I see happening is players who took money potentially losing their college eligibility. All schools involved less Louisville appear to have had no knowledge of what was going on. Pearl’s name was not mentioned at anytime in any of Persons convos.  Nor was Jay Jacobs. Not once did Person say BP knew or condoned what he was doing.  This is a criminal investigation, not an NCAA investigation. They are out to catch criminals, I don’t think they have a vested interest in eligibility, potential NCAA infractions, etc. They want to bust people who broke the law. The question is what will Auburn do now....particularly with the players involved, were there other coaches??? Did BP really know?Did the AD dept not keep appropriate tabs on its program? IMO the NCAA could never complete a thorough investigation of this magnitude...this one just luckily fell in their laps.

agree, the FBI is saying we are innocent (that's a pretty big witness). Auburn will fight the ncaa on this if they try to impose any penalties other than ineligible players, and that's fair.

[doverstutts 1,643]

8 minutes ago, TigerOne said:

agree, the FBI is saying we are innocent (that's a pretty big witness). Auburn will fight the ncaa on this if they try to impose any penalties other than ineligible players, and that's fair.

[DAG 33,955]

Idiot coach , idiot parents.

[Beaker 2,457]

4 minutes ago, DAG said:

Idiot coach , idiot parents.

exactly.  

Dang this hurts.

[AlaskanFAN 1,665]

53 minutes ago, TigerOne said:

agree, the FBI is saying we are innocent (that's a pretty big witness). Auburn will fight the ncaa on this if they try to impose any penalties other than ineligible players, and that's fair.

It may not be the death penalty from the NCAA but it could be the death penalty from recruits in the court of public opinion and a tool other schools will DEFINITELY use against us. So it might as well be the death penalty. It is not like we are a basketball powerhouse.

[AU64 10,122]

Amazing scheme..  but wondering where all the front money was coming from?    

All the exchanges of money were for future events....and nothing that would seem to benefit AU but seems the players are in serious hot water.  

Just thinking that no way JJ could get fired unless BP goes too....kinda hard to give BP a pass for " not knowing"...and blame JJ.   JMO.

 

As for fighting the NCAA.....not sure I recall anyone coming out ahead by doing that.   Mostly schools take preemptive action and hope for the best.

[AUIH1 1,515]

While Leath is saying the PC things publicly about how no one else has been implicated at AU, the following statement leads me to believe that privately he is not a happy camper with JJ or possibly BP:

"It's very disappointing," Leath said. "I think university presidents are always concerned that the tail doesn't wag the dog. And then you see things like this going on under people's noses, and you wonder how it's even possible."

Again, I am sure he is asking JJ and BP for explanations.

wde

[Charhair 345]

Has anyone heard anything about practice tomorrow? 

[AUDub 11,131]

19 minutes ago, Charhair said:

Has anyone heard anything about practice tomorrow? 

Who knows. All of the coaches in the SEC have been called to the 'ham today.

[AU64 10,122]

2 minutes ago, Bigbens42 said:

Who knows. All of the coaches in the SEC have been called to the 'ham today.

Very interesting......thanks...

[TigerFanAU 586]

Miami men's basketball program under FBI investigation, president acknowledges

The president of the University of Miami (Fla.) acknowledged Wednesday evening that his men's basketball program is subject to an ongoing FBI investigation. Miami joins Auburn, Arizona, Louisville, Oklahoma State and USC as schools publicly connected to the unprecedented probe that has rocked college basketball. 

In court documents, Miami reasonably appears to be so-called "University-7" with specific connections to an unidentified coach "Coach-3" and recruit "Player-12." University-7 is identified as a private university in Florida with approximately 16,000 students and one of the state's largest universities, among other details that match Miami's profile. There are accusations from the FBI that Jim Gatto, a prominent Adidas employee, was working with an assistant coach from University-7 in an effort to move $150,000 to the family of a high-profile 2018 prospect.

 

 

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/miami-president-acknowledges-his-mens-basketball-program-is-under-fbi-investigation/

[AU64 10,122]

Noticed al.com piece and looks like bama is about one day behind us in the scandal.

They got rid of one basketball staffer but that was just the low hanging fruit.   Names of players not being divulged yet  but you don't have to be the kid's mothers to know who they are referring too....couple recent highly rated recruits in question.  

Again....a school suddenly recruiting over its head and hoping not to get noticed.......or maybe thinking it had immunity ?  .

[CullmanTiger 52]

2 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Again....a school suddenly recruiting over its head and hoping not to get noticed.......or maybe thinking it had immunity ?  .

I thinks it's more along the lines of "Sure we cheat, doesn't everybody"

[AUTigersfan89 256]

5 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Noticed al.com piece and looks like bama is about one day behind us in the scandal.

They got rid of one basketball staffer but that was just the low hanging fruit.   Names of players not being divulged yet  but you don't have to be the kid's mothers to know who they are referring too....couple recent highly rated recruits in question.  

Again....a school suddenly recruiting over its head and hoping not to get noticed.......or maybe thinking it had immunity ?  .

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

I don't think any program should be throwing stones at this point.