A point-shaving scandal, which “appears to touch both pro and college basketball,” has already generated a few headlines, but the sports world “has not come to grips with just how widespread this scheme could be,” according to Rosenberg & Forde of SI. Authorities say that gambler Shane Hennen helped orchestrate “one of the most pervasive point-shaving scandals in North American sports history.” In a court filing last month, the office of acting U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny of the Eastern District of N.Y. vouched for “substantial evidence” that Hennen was involved in “illicit financial transactions and fraudulent sports wagers totaling millions of dollars,” resulting “in potentially millions of dollars’ worth of illicit profits and money-laundering transactions.” The links from Hennen to game fixing begin with former NBAer Jontay Porter. Sources familiar with “elements of the federal and NCAA inquiries” said that authorities are “investigating potential links between the same gambling ring and wagering on at least nine college games across last season and this season.” Investigators have flagged unusual wagering on games involving “at least five” college teams, and they are “prepared for that number to increase.” The Justice Department alleges Hennen had “five co-conspirators” just for the Porter scheme. The NCAA also has “formally opened an investigation” at Eastern Michigan Univ. Sources said that North Carolina A&T also has “at least one game under scrutiny” from federal investigators and the NCAA. Rosenberg & Forde wrote, “If gamblers and game fixers were indeed at work at those schools, they preyed upon some of the least-funded teams and athletic programs in NCAA Division I” (SI, 2/25).
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