Crime & Law
Ex-DePaul Players Among Several Charged With Rigging College Basketball Games
NCAA logo displayed on the fence before an NCAA softball game between Jacksonville and FGCU, March 24, 2024, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/Gary McCullough, File)
A trio of former DePaul men’s basketball players are among more than two dozen people charged in connection with a wide-ranging point shaving scandal in which players allegedly sought to fix games as recently as last season.
A new indictment published Thursday in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania names 26 people as defendants accused of charges including bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy. Among them are former DePaul University guard Jalen Terry and forward Da’Sean Nelson.
The complaint also names ex-DePaul forward Mac Etienne, stating that he has been charged elsewhere, as well as former Chicago Bulls guard Antonio Blakeney.
“DePaul University is deeply disappointed that former student-athletes were named in the indictment for alleged gambling activities during the 2023-2024 men’s basketball season,” a university spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.
Calling it an “international criminal conspiracy,” U.S. Attorney David Metcalf told reporters in Philadelphia that this case represents a “significant corruption of the integrity of sports.”
Concerns about gambling and college sports have grown since 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on the practice, leading some states to legalize it to varying degrees. The NCAA does not allow athletes or staff to bet on college games, but it briefly allowed student-athletes to bet on professional sports last year before rescinding that decision in November.
Of the defendants, 15 played basketball for Division 1 NCAA schools during the 2024-25 season, prosecutors say. Several of them are playing this season.
In many instances, the defendants’ wagers on the fixed games were successful. The sportsbooks paid out the winnings, and took losses, authorities say.
“The sportsbooks would not have paid out those wagers had they known that the defendants fixed those games,” the indictment said.
Meanwhile, other bettors unaware of the scheme lost money on their bets and would not have placed those bets had they known about it, authorities say.
Terry started 52 games for DePaul during the 2021-22 through 2023-24 seasons, while Nelson started 25 games over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. Both players later transferred to Eastern Michigan where they continued playing in the 2024-25 season.
Etienne, who is charged elsewhere, was also a member of DePaul’s 2023-24 team.
Five others last played in the NCAA in the 2023-24 season while another — Blakeney, who played 76 games for the Bulls over the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons — played in the Chinese Basketball Association in the 2022-23 season.
Blakeney is described in the indictment as one of a handful of “fixers” who offered bribe payments to players to fix DePaul men’s basketball games through point shaving.
The indictment alleges that those “fixers” recruited Terry, Nelson, Etienne and another unnamed DePaul player around February 2024. Those players allegedly agreed to “underperform” during the first half of their game against Georgetown that month in order to ensure DePaul would not cover the first-half point spread.
The “fixers” allegedly placed approximately $27,000 in wagers with sportsbooks on Georgetown to cover the first-half spread of 2.5 points. Georgetown took a 41-28 lead at half, allowing the fixers to win their bets, the complaint states.
“Around halftime of this game, when it was clear that the point-shaving scheme was succeeding, defendant (Jalen Smith) texted Etienne about arranging to pay the bribe money and complimented defendants (Terry) and (Nelson) for underperforming as they had agreed: ‘l love Jalen terry he perfected his job . . . Sh*t Nelson snapped too,’” the complaint states.
Terry was scoreless in the first half but scored 16 points in the second half, after the bets had been won, as DePaul ended up losing by one point, the complaint states. The following day, Jalen Smith — another one of the so-called “fixers” — traveled to Chicago and delivered $40,000 in bribe payments to Terry, Nelson, Etienne and the unnamed player.
The defendants allegedly carried out similar arrangements before subsequent games on March 2 and March 5, 2024.
Before that March 5 game against St. John’s, Etienne allegedly texted Smith he was “trynna make yah the big money while we take a little cut.” During that game, when one DePaul player not involved in the scheme was playing well, Smith allegedly texted Etienne to complain, telling him that player needed to “chilllll [the f-ck] out.”
St. John’s still covered the spread in that game, and the defendants once again won their bets, the complaint states.
The DePaul spokesperson said no current student-athletes were members of the 2023-2024 team and said the university intends to cooperate with any investigation.
“The university has a longstanding commitment to educating our athletics community about the dangers and consequences of sports gambling,” the spokesperson said, adding that the university participated in “comprehensive” sports wagering monitoring and maintains a “robust” compliance education program. “We will continue to evaluate and strengthen our education, monitoring, and compliance efforts to protect the integrity of competition and the well-being of our student-athletes.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
