One of the alleged “fixers” at the center of a betting scheme involving rigged NCAA basketball games has pleaded guilty.
Jalen Smith pleaded guilty to wire fraud and bribery charges, The Associated Press reported.
His attorney, Rocco Cipparone, said after the hearing that Smith “decided he wanted to move forward in his life, accept responsibility, put this behind him, and this is the first step in this process, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
He was one of 26 people charged.
He trained and developed basketball players for professional scouting combines and used the connections he made as part of the scheme, the AP reported.
Of the 25 other people charged, 20 were former college basketball players or were active with their teams this season. The others were the alleged fixers, the Inquirer reported.
The alleged fixers were the ones who were accused of recruiting players and placing bets.
Prosecutors said Smith helped fix games in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons by placing bets and recruiting players, promising payouts if they purposefully underperformed during a game.
He would contact them via text messages and FaceTime, the Inquirer reported.
Then the fixers would bet against the players’ teams, prosecutors said.
Smith would travel to players and pay them cash. In one case, he went to Louisiana to arrange a payment of $32,000 for two players, prosecutors said.
Payments to players ranged from $10,000 to $30,000 a game, prosecutors said.
At least 29 games were affected, with gamblers winning millions of dollars, according to the Inquirer.
Smith is free on bail and is expected to be sentenced in June, the Inquirer said.
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