By Adam Zagoria | Special to the Arizona Daily Star
A jury will decide whether three men accused of funneling cash to basketball prospects and their families were defrauding the universities they purported to help.
Closing arguments ended Thursday at the Moynihan U.S. Federal Courthouse in Manhattan, and the jury will reconvene Monday morning to begin deliberations.
“You have heard a spectacular set of closing arguments by some very fine lawyers,” Judge Lewis A. Kaplan told the 12-member jury before sending them home for the weekend with the instructions to remain “in a state of sterilization from information about this case” and to stay away from television, newspapers and social media.
Would-be sports agent Christian Dawkins, former Adidas consultant Merl Code and Adidas executive Jim Gatto have pleaded not guilty to charges that they committed wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud by paying families of coveted basketball prospects to get them to commit to programs sponsored by the sneaker company.
The prosecution says N.C. State, Louisville, Kansas and Miami, all Adidas schools, were victims of the conspiracy. Their logic: Players whose families received payments would be ineligible, and the schools would suffer financially as a result.
