26 charged in NCAA, Chinese basketball rigging scheme

From PBS NewsHour.

Federal prosecutors are charging 26 people for allegedly rigging NCAA and Chinese basketball association games; 15 of those charged played Division I basketball as recently as last season. The charges include wire fraud, bribery and conspiracy.

In a press conference Thursday, authorities said fixtures paid players up to $30,000 a game to deliberately underperform, then placed large bets against their teams. U.S. attorney David Metcalf says those involved "poisoned the American spirit of competition from monetary gain."

The indictment claims that fixers and players tried to rig 29 games across multiple seasons involving millions of dollars in bets. It comes after a series of NCAA investigations that have led to at least 10 players receiving lifetime bans.

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