0:00

previously on The Bag Game.

0:04

They wanted Billy to go to an Adidas school, to

0:06

an Adidas-branded school. The first

0:08

question that comes up is, where do you get

0:10

the charger from? The black market economy

0:13

of paying players under the table exists

0:15

because of the NCAA's amateurism

0:17

rules.

0:23

In 2019, I went

0:26

with my reporting partner, Mark

0:29

Schlebaugh, to Orlando, Florida.

0:32

We were there to meet a guy named Brad

0:35

Augustine. So

0:37

what is your normal work week like

0:39

now? Oh, gosh. Mostly it's

0:41

in the car. I've got a handful

0:43

of accounts, so... And they're spread

0:46

out, so Tampa, Central Florida... These

0:48

days, he works in his father-in-law's

0:51

flooring business. Porcelain tile.

0:53

We do do a little bit of wood. The only thing we really don't

0:55

deal with is carpet.

0:56

Augustine worked his way up in the

0:58

world of commercial flooring, from forklift

1:01

driver to sales rep over two years.

1:04

But it was a career change

1:06

for him. And that led

1:08

to some awkward

1:09

conversations. It was nerve-wracking

1:12

the first couple of times when people asked me, well, how did

1:14

you end up in this industry? Like, how are you here?

1:16

And it's never something I hid. It's always something

1:19

I was honest about.

1:20

He'd tell them the story about

1:22

how his old life in basketball

1:25

came to an end. But, you know, telling

1:27

that story for the first time, you're sweating,

1:30

like, oh, my gosh, these people are going

1:32

to look at me like I'm the worst human being on the planet.

1:35

And that was why I was

1:37

there, to have him tell

1:40

me that story. Hi. We

1:43

arrived at his spacious home

1:45

in a gated community in the Orlando suburbs.

1:48

His wife, Alexa, greeted us, along

1:50

with their newborn daughter and her big

1:52

sister, a toddler who ran

1:55

across a playroom of dolls and toys

1:57

toward the front door. You are silly. Yeah.

2:02

In his previous life, Augustine

2:05

was the program director of one

2:08

of Florida's premier youth basketball

2:10

programs. Teams like his

2:13

aren't funded through public schools

2:14

or rec centers. They're

2:17

private operations. And

2:19

Augustine went into debt to

2:21

support the team. I

2:23

was $50,000 in debt with not one penny

2:25

in savings. Nothing. Augustine

2:28

tried getting money from every

2:30

source he could think of, but he was

2:32

struggling to keep his head above water. In

2:36

September 2017, he

2:38

got a

2:39

call from Christian Dawkins,

2:42

a rising sports business manager

2:44

and aspiring financial advisor.

2:47

Dawkins had connections

2:50

at Adidas, and he

2:52

had helped Augustine raise money in the past.

2:55

He told me, listen, you need to come to New York

2:57

and you need to meet my investor, is what he called

3:00

her, and it was Jill. According

3:02

to Dawkins, Jill Bailey

3:04

was a tech entrepreneur with money

3:06

to burn who wanted to get into

3:08

the sports business.

3:11

Dawkins wanted her to meet Augustine.

3:14

To prove to her, he had connections

3:17

to up and coming athletes.

3:19

If Augustine talked the talk in front of

3:21

Bailey, Dawkins promised

3:23

to pull strings at Adidas to get money

3:26

for Augustine's team. So I

3:28

told my wife, I said, I'm leaving, I'm going to the airport. Augustine

3:30

got to New York and checked into his

3:33

hotel that night. I'm in an early

3:35

riser, I always have been, I'm up around five o'clock.

3:37

So I'm up in the hotel room about five,

3:39

five thirty, and

3:41

I get a weird phone call. And

3:44

like, who's this? And the person on the other

3:46

end of the phone says, this

3:48

is so and so with the FBI. We

3:50

know you're in New York City. You need to turn yourself

3:52

in. Now, at this

3:54

point, I'm not even thinking twice. I literally,

3:57

I've got the funniest friends, so they prank call me all

3:59

the time. Unphased,

4:02

Augustine made his way to the W

4:04

Hotel in Times Square, where the

4:06

meeting with Dawkins and the tech

4:08

entrepreneur Jill Bailey was

4:10

supposed to happen. So

4:12

I get to the W at 7.30. We're supposed to meet at 8. So

4:15

I'm there at 7.30. I got the laptop fired up and

4:17

making phone calls. I'm just, I'm reading the news. 7.45.

4:20

I'm calling Christian. Nothing's happening. Eight

4:23

o'clock. Nothing. So

4:25

now it's nine o'clock and now I'm pissed, right? I flew up here

4:27

for this meeting. This guy's not even calling me

4:30

back. He's totally ghosting me.

4:31

Augustine decided he'd waited

4:33

long enough and left the hotel.

4:36

And I'm standing right in the middle of

4:38

Times Square, just circles

4:41

of people around me, and the

4:43

lights are all lit up, and all

4:45

of a sudden my phone just starts pinging.

4:48

Notification after notification after notification.

4:50

So I swipe the first notification I see, and

4:52

it opens up a tweet and it says, United

4:56

States of America vs. Jonathan Bradley Augustine.

5:00

Augustine had just been criminally

5:03

charged by the U.S. Department

5:05

of Justice, and he found

5:08

out about it through a tweet.

5:10

I had to have sat there for two minutes just

5:12

staring at my phone. I didn't move. I don't know if I took

5:14

a breath. I was so confused.

5:17

And then I think somebody bumped into me, and

5:19

I just snapped out of it. And

5:21

I started scrolling, and I see four

5:24

felony counts. And

5:26

so in that moment, before I did anything, I

5:28

called my wife and said, Hey, babe, I

5:30

have no idea what's going on right now, but

5:33

I'm pretty sure I'm going to get arrested today.

5:35

Brad Augustine

5:37

didn't know the full story yet,

5:40

but he had been implicated

5:42

in one of college basketball's most

5:45

dramatic pay-for-play scandals.

5:48

The same one that ensnared

5:51

Billy Preston.

6:00

assistant coaches. Charged

6:01

in a bribery speed... This marked the end of Augustine's

6:03

career and would lead to him being called the most

6:18

dangerous man in college basketball.

6:23

From ESPN and 30 for 30

6:25

podcasts, I'm Paula Levine

6:28

and this is The Bag Game. Episode 3,

6:30

The Sting.

6:44

In the first two episodes, we focused

6:46

on Billy Preston, a basketball

6:49

player benched at the University of Kansas

6:52

after his car accident got the attention

6:54

of the NCAA. Billy

6:56

left Kansas to play in Bosnia

6:59

and we'll return to him later. But

7:03

right now, let's shift the focus

7:05

to Brad Augustine because

7:08

Augustine's story takes us inside

7:10

the big money world of youth basketball.

7:14

If you pull the thread on

7:16

pay-to-play schemes, you'll

7:19

often find youth teams at

7:21

the source.

7:25

Long before he was in the sights

7:27

of the Justice Department, Brad

7:29

Augustine grew up in Orlando and

7:32

went on to play basketball in college.

7:34

At Southeastern University, had

7:36

an opportunity then to go overseas,

7:39

only played about a half a season, wasn't

7:41

for me.

7:42

But Augustine wasn't ready to give up

7:44

on basketball, so he returned to

7:47

Florida and became a trainer. I

7:49

had a really good name in the state of Florida,

7:52

training. I mean, I would argue at one point

7:54

that I was the premier guy to go to

7:56

if you were an elite player, you were going to search me out

7:58

for training.

7:59

In 2012, one of the

8:02

players Augustine had trained went

8:04

pro, and he offered

8:06

Augustine money to start a youth basketball

8:09

team. That was the beginning

8:11

of what was then called Showtime Hoops.

8:14

We were known for just being the hardest working, toughest

8:17

group. The team was part

8:19

of the Amateur Athletic Union, or AAU,

8:23

same as TJ Gasnola's team, the

8:25

New England Players.

8:28

As Showtime

8:28

Hoops established itself,

8:31

Augustine spent more and more of his time

8:34

figuring out

8:35

how to pay for the program. As

8:37

I quickly realized, boy, it

8:39

costs a lot of money to do AAU

8:42

right.

8:42

That's because AAU

8:44

teams travel to tournaments all

8:47

around the country. You're traveling on

8:49

a minimum of 30 kids, a coach

8:51

or two coaches, so you're renting

8:53

15-passenger vans, you're getting

8:55

hotels. These kids aren't getting sent

8:58

with any money, so you're at McDonald's,

9:00

or at Wendy's, or you're at Waffle House, where you can get the biggest

9:02

bang for your buck or your order and pizza. And

9:06

man, it's a lot to balance.

9:07

These were 15 to 17-year-old kids. They

9:12

eat a lot. Some

9:14

of the players' families helped to pay for the team's

9:17

costs, but most weren't able

9:19

to. Augustine had

9:21

money from his backer in the NBA, but

9:24

he was also taking on tens of

9:26

thousands of dollars in personal credit

9:29

card debt.

9:30

His wife, Alexa, felt the

9:32

impact. I

9:35

was enough removed to see

9:38

the destruction that could come from the irresponsibility

9:42

with our finances. I think

9:44

Brad was a little too

9:46

entrenched in it, and he's

9:49

a visionary, and he's a kapathful

9:51

person.

9:52

Alexa was herself a former college

9:55

player at Florida State. She'd

9:57

considered her own pro career over $7 million.

10:00

overseas, but she stayed in Florida

10:02

and ended up working in an athletic program

10:05

at a local high school.

10:06

I kind of felt like a single mom for a lot of

10:08

time. I was working a full-time

10:11

job. Most nights

10:13

he wasn't there. He was either traveling or

10:15

driving, helping pick up a player, drop

10:18

a player off, take him to get

10:21

books for school, whatever

10:23

that entailed.

10:24

Augustine knew the only

10:27

way to keep Showtime hoops going was

10:29

to get sponsored by one of the apparel

10:31

companies and play in their

10:34

circuit.

10:35

And with that, that's shoes,

10:38

that's apparel, that's travel,

10:40

that's all of the bells and whistles

10:43

that come with being a part of Nike or Adidas

10:45

or Under Armour. That's

10:47

Myron Medcalf, who covers college

10:50

basketball and recruiting for ESPN.

10:53

I've been to events where you

10:55

look on the sideline and

10:57

there are five boxes of shoes per kid

11:00

because these companies just given them that. The

11:03

kid flew first class

11:05

maybe to get there. For the companies,

11:07

it's an investment.

11:09

Some of these kids are going to go pro and

11:11

brands want to establish

11:13

a relationship. At the top,

11:16

in terms of those deals, are the shoe

11:18

companies hoping that they'll land the next

11:20

LeBron. So they're fueling, putting

11:23

a lot of money into making

11:25

sure these tournaments are top notch and they are.

11:28

To get your program on one of the

11:30

top flight circuits, you need

11:33

to have the kind of talent that attracts

11:36

national attention. Augustine

11:39

had a promising young guard

11:41

named Nasir

11:42

Little. It was getting out to Nasir Little and he

11:44

continues to impress as he... Unbelievable

11:47

family, unbelievable young man. He was our

11:49

motor. Take the bump, the contact. He's

11:51

got a grown man body already. He's already

11:53

prepared for college basketball physically.

11:56

Today Little plays in the NBA

11:58

for the Trailblazers. At the

12:00

time, he was Showtime Hoops' star.

12:04

Augustine made a connection with a

12:06

rep from Under Armour, and

12:08

his pitch was simple.

12:09

Give us a shot. I

12:12

don't want any money. I don't want anything. Just give us an

12:14

opportunity. Give us an opportunity.

12:17

Let us get on the circuit.

12:20

In 2016, Augustine's

12:23

team competed on the Under Armour circuit.

12:25

We lost every single game

12:29

on the Under Armour circuit. And you want to talk

12:31

about showing up to

12:33

a tournament and having these guys look at you like, you

12:36

sold me a bag of goods. You guys are terrible.

12:38

And now not only that, now we're not traveling to Georgia.

12:41

I'm having now to buy flights, right?

12:44

So now I'm flying a whole team

12:47

to Indianapolis, to New York. You

12:49

ever tried to rent two 15 passenger vans in New York City?

12:52

You know how expensive that is? So we're

12:55

just scraping by. And at the end of

12:57

that season, I just remember, I

12:59

felt so defeated because, I mean,

13:02

we had failed on the biggest stage. It

13:04

was at this moment when things

13:06

were particularly bleak that

13:10

Augustine made a friend.

13:12

I ended up getting connected to a guy who

13:14

I was told just had the juice.

13:17

And somebody got me a meeting and said, meet this guy. If

13:19

you think your program's that good, sell

13:22

this guy, and you may figure

13:24

it out. And that was Christian Dawkins.

13:27

What was your first impression of Christian? Very

13:29

bright, very direct,

13:32

very intelligent, understood the landscape,

13:36

was clearly knowledgeable, was clearly tied

13:38

in, clearly had influence, no

13:41

BS.

13:41

To understand Christian

13:44

Dawkins is to understand the

13:46

complex way that under the table

13:48

money works its way into the system. Here's

13:51

Dawkins talking in an interview on YouTube

13:54

about how he got started

13:55

in the business. Once

13:57

you're around town, see people who

13:59

are... worth money to entities and

14:02

businesses. I mean, people figured

14:04

out that I could be, you know, beneficial to their businesses

14:07

and it kind of blossomed from there. Dawkins

14:10

had been working as what's known as

14:12

a runner for a prominent agent

14:14

who paid him to recruit young basketball

14:17

players with pro potential.

14:20

But around the time of his meeting with Augustine,

14:23

Dawkins had a new plan.

14:26

He wanted to start his own financial

14:28

advisor business. He would steer

14:31

kids to particular schools and

14:33

then take the athletes on as paying

14:35

clients once they turned pro. Here's

14:38

Myron Medcalf again.

14:40

Christian Dawkins represented himself as someone

14:44

who could help teams get players, someone

14:46

who could make moves, someone who could be a go-between

14:50

to the top talent in America and the

14:52

top programs

14:53

in America. Those sorts

14:55

of claims are often exaggerated.

14:59

Dawkins needed connections like

15:01

Augustine to deliver.

15:02

You better believe about 25% of

15:05

what you hear on the

15:06

ALU circuit because the other 75% is

15:08

probably BS. And if you're Christian

15:12

Dawkins, you're trying to figure out, yeah, I

15:14

want to build these relationships, but I'm

15:16

also trying to move up the food chain too. And

15:19

I'm not moving up the food chain without somehow

15:23

being a power player in

15:25

this business that people can turn to when

15:27

they want to land top prospects.

15:30

Understanding the payoff for

15:32

people like Dawkins is key

15:34

to understanding the bag

15:36

game. Sometimes

15:38

go-betweens like Dawkins would get

15:40

a fee for recruiting a player for an agent

15:43

or a shoe company.

15:43

But that's not

15:45

a sustaining income. So

15:48

what's in it for them in the long

15:51

run? According to Matt

15:53

Babcock, the former agent

15:55

we met last episode, it

15:57

comes down to what's known as a point.

15:59

or a percentage

16:02

of an athlete's pro contract. The

16:05

terminology being that they want a point, which

16:07

means they want 1% of your agent fees. That's

16:10

a very common sort of standard

16:13

request from AU coaches,

16:15

handlers, even parents. And I

16:17

think the guys that have probably done this the most

16:19

successfully are the guys that have long

16:21

lasting relationships with schools, agents,

16:24

or shoe companies, that they do take those

16:26

deals and they write it out the long term.

16:29

So where is that actually written down? Is

16:32

that in writing anywhere? Probably

16:34

not. I

16:35

think a lot of those are just sort of wink, wink type

16:38

deals.

16:39

So how often do the players

16:41

even know this is happening? I'd

16:44

say in most cases they don't know. So

16:47

that's the long term strategy for people

16:49

like Dawkins. He

16:51

positioned himself as someone who could deliver

16:54

top players to agents, apparel

16:56

companies, and colleges.

16:59

Augustine and Dawkins frequently

17:01

talked about where Showtime Hoops players

17:03

wanted to go to school. See, AAU

17:06

coaches have a lot of influence

17:08

on their players' college decisions.

17:12

College

17:12

coaches can't just talk

17:14

to high school players whenever and

17:16

however they want. The NCAA

17:18

controls that. So the

17:21

AAU coach is the go-between.

17:23

20 plus years ago, if you

17:26

wanted to go and get a top player in

17:28

America, you went to his high school coach. That's

17:31

not the case anymore. I mean, you're going to the AAU

17:33

coach, nine times out of 10. So

17:36

they're, I mean, they're powerful. If

17:39

Coach K wants players, he's gotta call

17:40

you. Bill Self has to call you.

17:44

Augustine helped Dawkins

17:46

by steering his program's top

17:49

players toward colleges that wore

17:51

Adidas, like the University

17:53

of Miami.

17:53

I was looking at it like,

17:55

okay, if the kid's kinda leaning

17:57

toward Miami, well, we need Adidas to step

17:59

up.

17:59

up, right? If we're

18:02

going to help the brand, which a five-star

18:04

kid going to one of your premier schools helps the brand,

18:06

if he's going to help the brand, I'm going to Christian. I'm saying,

18:08

man, like, what's up? Like, we need to be taken care

18:11

of.

18:12

Augustine had influence over

18:14

where his players decided to go to college.

18:17

And if it worked out, he was

18:19

hoping to get points on their eventual

18:22

contracts.

18:22

For me, it was a long term

18:24

play of, OK, this year is going to be our first

18:26

pro, right? That's going to change the game

18:29

for our program, like, because this kid's going to end up

18:31

signing a shoe contract one day and

18:33

we're going to write it into his rider that our program

18:35

is taken care of through the shoe company.

18:37

As their relationship grew,

18:40

Dawkins introduced Augustine

18:42

to people at Adidas. So

18:45

just like he had with Under Armour,

18:47

Augustine asked for a shot for

18:50

Showtime hoops to prove

18:51

itself, this time

18:54

on Adidas's gauntlet circuit.

18:57

Just let us play on the circuit and give us product,

18:59

give us jersey, shoes, bags and

19:01

backpacks. I don't want anything else. And

19:04

let me prove myself. And they agreed

19:06

to it.

19:07

Augustine seized an opportunity

19:10

to attend an Adidas directors

19:12

meeting in Las Vegas early in

19:15

2017. That's where shoe

19:17

company executives and AAU

19:19

program directors would meet

19:22

and talk about the year ahead. And

19:24

it's where Augustine saw how the big

19:26

apparel companies

19:27

saw things. You weren't sitting in that

19:30

room if you didn't have a player

19:32

that there's an outside fringe

19:34

possibility that at some point they were

19:36

going to be a professional basketball player. And

19:39

let's be honest, like, if we're

19:41

approaching it from a capitalism standpoint, it's brilliant.

19:44

How did the shoe company reps communicate that

19:47

to you? Were they were they subtle

19:49

about it or how did they deliver that? I mean, it was it

19:51

was pretty direct. I mean, guys, like, we're

19:53

here for pros. That's

19:56

what we're here for. If you don't deliver,

19:59

you're done. They won't be in this room next year.

20:02

And again, there was nothing, there was no naivete

20:04

about it. Like that's what shoe company

20:06

basketball is. It's not, Nike's

20:08

not funding a team here in Orlando because they send

20:10

kids to college. They don't care. They've

20:13

got four or five kids on their team that could be NBA players at

20:15

some point. That's the model of

20:17

their business.

20:19

Augustine thought this time he did

20:21

have a guy, Nasir Little, and

20:24

a strong program. And he

20:26

needed Adidas' money because he

20:28

was burning through his

20:29

own. So I would say I probably walked

20:32

out of that Under

20:34

Armour year, $15,000, $20,000 in credit card

20:38

debt. My check came in and

20:41

it had to go to the house and it had to go to the bills

20:43

and literally whatever was left over went

20:46

back into the program.

20:46

Augustine was sinking

20:48

deeper into debt, but he

20:51

didn't see any alternative. When

20:53

you've got 30 young men that are looking at you,

20:55

it wasn't just like, oh, this is going to be embarrassing

20:57

for me if I don't pull this off. These

21:00

kids and these families and these coaches

21:02

are depending on me to come

21:05

through. So now to be in that position,

21:07

I mean, I was

21:10

terrified. Augustine

21:13

got the team through most of the season, but

21:15

with one tournament left in

21:18

Las Vegas, he was all

21:20

out of cash.

21:22

Augustine put all his hope

21:25

in Christian Dawkins. Christian

21:28

had been telling me he was going to get me some money for about

21:30

a month, month and a half, and I hadn't got it. But

21:32

he told me he was going to get it to me in Las Vegas.

21:35

And so I said, I

21:36

need you to be positive about that because

21:38

I'm going to fly my team out there and I'm

21:40

not buying, I can't afford round trip. So

21:42

I'm going to buy one ways. Once there,

21:45

he got a call from Dawkins, inviting

21:48

him to a meeting with an investor at

21:50

the Cosmopolitan Hotel.

21:51

He calls me and said, hey, we're going to go meet this

21:53

guy. He's got the money for you.

21:58

So I remember taking... the elevator

22:01

up to the highest floor you could go on the elevator

22:04

stepping off and there's another private

22:06

elevator we get on that elevator

22:09

and we go up to the top floor of the Cosmo

22:11

and I remember stepping off and it was like

22:15

something out of like an Ocean's Eleven movie right

22:17

like the hallways like we're like velvet walls

22:19

I'm like this is insane and

22:22

so we knock on the door the door opens and

22:24

I mean it was like open

22:27

doors out to the Vegas skyline

22:29

like

22:29

expansive balcony inside

22:33

the room Dawkins introduced

22:35

Augustine to a couple of guys

22:38

there was just some young dude in there

22:41

with his like shirt unbuttoned down his navel

22:44

and like spiky hair and that was supposedly

22:46

his investor and then Marty Marty

22:49

was there as well

22:51

Marty was Marty Blazer

22:54

a financial advisor from Pittsburgh

22:57

we were just shooting the crap just talking

23:00

and then the topic of a player named Balsa

23:02

Coprovica came up Coprovica

23:05

was planning to play for Augustine's team

23:07

the next season in 2018

23:09

Louisville wanted him

23:11

badly and so the whole premise was

23:14

of the meeting was okay this guy's gonna give me

23:16

this money and I'm gonna tell him the kids

23:18

going to Louisville so you know

23:20

we're in there and he's like okay yeah like I'm gonna give you this

23:22

money this is for the mom and the family mind you

23:24

the kid and the mom had no idea what was going on right

23:27

so I'm but I'm telling these guys yeah no the mom

23:29

needs this to live you know I got to pay I

23:31

got bills that are associated with this kid

23:34

you know whatever

23:34

the investor with the unbuttoned

23:37

shirt handed Augustine an

23:40

envelope full of cash

23:42

and so I remember getting up taking

23:45

that envelope of money leaving

23:47

the Cosmo and that was

23:49

it how much money was it

23:51

that is right under 13 grand like 12,700 bucks somewhere

23:54

in there what did you do with the 12,700 I bought us our flights

23:57

home and

23:59

the rest just I mean, went to recouping expenses.

24:01

I mean, by that point, like I said, we were, I was

24:03

so far in debt. Our whole trip

24:05

was on my Amex card.

24:07

So it's paying off my cards, trying to get the

24:10

balances down. Augustine

24:13

had done what he had to do to get his team

24:15

home. But what

24:17

he didn't know was that the room

24:20

at the Cosmo was bugged.

24:24

The FBI

24:24

had the whole meeting

24:27

on video. And Dawkins,

24:29

investor who handed over the cash,

24:33

he was an undercover agent.

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25:46

When Brad Augustine took

25:48

that envelope of cash and walked

25:51

out of the Cosmopolitan Hotel in

25:53

Vegas,

25:54

he became part of one of the

25:56

largest bribery scandals in

25:58

the history of college. sports.

26:01

The feds had set him up. But

26:05

why? All right, let's do it. I

26:07

talked with the prosecutors who pursued

26:09

the case to find out. My name

26:12

is Ted Discount. From 2012 until 2021,

26:14

I was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the

26:18

Southern District of New York. The Southern

26:20

District is sometimes nicknamed the

26:23

Sovereign District of New York for its

26:25

political independence and ability

26:27

to take on nationally high profile

26:30

cases.

26:31

SDNY is the prosecutor's office

26:33

that sent ex-Trump attorney Michael

26:36

Cohen to prison. Former New York Assembly

26:38

Speaker Sheldon Silver. Bernie Madoff.

26:41

Michael Avenatti. Martha Stewart. Jeffrey

26:43

Epstein. And then Jillian Maxwell.

26:46

In 2022, SDNY

26:48

set its sights on imploded cryptocurrency

26:50

giant FTX and its founder,

26:53

Sam Bankman-Fried. SDNY

26:55

started investigating college basketball

26:58

thanks to Marty Blazer. He's

27:00

the now former financial adviser

27:02

who Augustine met at the Cosmo. Blazer

27:06

had gotten caught stealing money from

27:08

clients, mainly professional athletes,

27:11

and investing it in a number of failed

27:14

ventures. This included

27:16

a truly terrible horror

27:18

movie called A Resurrection. When

27:21

a client discovered that Blazer had forged

27:23

his signature to help pay for that, Blazer

27:26

had to pay him back, in part by

27:28

stealing from his other clients. In 2014,

27:33

Blazer offered to give the government

27:35

dirt on college sports as part

27:37

of a proposed plea bargain. See,

27:39

Blazer had already been part of a bribery

27:42

scandal involving college football, and

27:44

through mutual connections,

27:46

he knew what Dawkins and others

27:48

were up to with basketball coaches. Blazer

27:51

agreed to become an informant to

27:53

help the feds expose corruption in

27:55

college basketball.

27:56

Many investigations

27:59

start. with a tip, with a bit

28:01

of information. It was more of a bottom

28:04

up than a top down. This

28:06

is Andrew Goldstein. At the

28:08

start of the investigation, Goldstein

28:11

was chief of the unit handling the case,

28:13

but he left before the cases went to

28:15

trial. As we looked at these

28:18

relationships that Marty Blazer had, and

28:21

we saw the way that these financial

28:23

advisors and coaches were operating, then

28:26

it struck us there is some real corruption here. And

28:29

let's investigate that as

28:31

hard as we can investigate, and let's see how much of

28:33

that we can ferret out and figure

28:35

out who were the wrongdoers there.

28:37

Blazer told prosecutors

28:39

about a complicated web of college

28:42

coaches, apparel companies, financial

28:44

advisors, grassroots programs,

28:47

players' family members, and

28:49

large sums of money.

28:52

So the feds started investigating

28:55

the bag game.

28:59

They set up wiretaps and heard

29:01

a lot, including

29:03

a conspiracy to get athletes to

29:05

attend schools sponsored by

29:07

Adidas.

29:09

What's

29:12

going on, brother? Yeah, I'm sorry. This

29:15

is a phone conversation between an Adidas

29:17

consultant named Merle Code

29:21

and Adidas marketing executive

29:23

James Gatto,

29:24

who we heard about in the last episode.

29:27

They're talking about Nasir

29:29

Little, Augustine's star player.

29:31

So here's the deal. There's a kid named Nasir

29:33

Little who's top five or six in the country

29:35

school. Larenaga knows

29:37

guys really want.

29:38

Jim Larenaga is the head

29:40

coach of the University of Miami

29:43

and Adidas school. The

29:45

problem is Arizona's over the kid 150,

29:49

and we're trying to keep him from going through one

29:51

of their schools.

29:52

The University of Arizona

29:55

is a Nike school. It

30:00

was brought to me through Brad and

30:03

Christian who said, hey, do

30:06

you think Jim would be able to

30:08

keep them at Miami because they really

30:10

want the kid? And I said, I don't know the answer to that. I'll

30:13

have to ask Jim if he's willing to do that. I don't

30:15

know how and what and where

30:17

and why and blah, blah, blah. He's going

30:19

to be a senior, right? Yes,

30:22

he's a rising singer.

30:24

When

30:26

would they need the money? The

30:29

recorded calls gave government investigators

30:32

scraps of evidence, stray

30:34

mentions of names and dollar amounts.

30:37

But it's not like anyone gets on the phone

30:40

and explains the whole scheme like some

30:42

kind of movie villain. When people see

30:44

wiretaps on television

30:46

and in movies, there are a bunch of agents

30:48

sitting around listening to every word and the

30:50

entire story comes together. In

30:53

practice, you're usually talking about fitting

30:55

together bits and pieces and snippets of conversation

30:58

and trying to understand

31:01

what frequently coded conversations

31:04

are about.

31:05

In August 25th, Louisville

31:07

needs to get five grand in account for

31:11

the big kid from Florida that

31:13

Brad Augustine is a guy

31:16

who Jeff met and Marty met and

31:18

he's going to be expecting August

31:20

25th, five grand for the big kid that Louisville was

31:22

trying to get.

31:24

As the picture started to come into

31:26

focus, it became increasingly clear that

31:28

what we were listening to was a scheme to make a very

31:30

large payment to the family of a student

31:32

athlete in a manner that the scheme

31:35

participants themselves seem to understand

31:38

was highly problematic and

31:40

ultimately illegal.

31:41

The wiretaps show that

31:43

the conspirators were trying

31:46

to cover their tracks, not always

31:48

successfully. Here's

31:50

a call between Dawkins and TJ

31:52

Gasnola. The Adidas bag

31:55

man we met in the last episode. In

31:57

this call, Gasnola is...

31:59

scolding Dawkins from blabbing

32:02

about the $100,000 they were arranging

32:05

for a player to go to an Adidas school.

32:06

I think the

32:09

world of you, and I take care of you, that

32:11

shit right there, I don't talk. Like that

32:13

shit right there gets people in trouble. You

32:15

can say, you can do this, y'all. If

32:17

you go here, I can take care of this. I get that, that's

32:19

fine. But names and money, you can't do

32:22

that. Because

32:24

I like this guy a lot, and I'm going to help him. And

32:27

I brought order back to the situation yesterday,

32:29

because God knows there's a bunch of fucking idiots

32:31

around me. I'm allowing me to do this, so shut the

32:34

fuck up.

32:35

The FBI tried to get the conspirators

32:37

to explain their scheme on the record.

32:40

Here's Adidas consultant Merle

32:42

Code again laying out the bag

32:45

game in a meeting with undercover agents.

32:49

It's a corrupt space as it is, and cheating

32:52

is cheating. When I give you a dollar, $100,000, or I get

32:54

your mom and dad jobs, it's

32:56

cheating, right? So

32:59

in some form of fashion, do North

33:01

Carolina, Syracuse, and Kentucky, all

33:03

of the schools are doing something to help your kids.

33:06

That's just a part of the space. The

33:08

FBI also set up a meeting with

33:11

Christian Dawkins and his business associates

33:13

on a two-story yacht in a Manhattan

33:16

marina with undercover agents Jill

33:18

Bailey and Jeff D'Angelo. The

33:21

agents were posing as a young, wealthy couple.

33:23

D'Angelo wore khaki pants, berry

33:26

boat shoes, and a sweater tied around his

33:28

neck. Bailey and D'Angelo

33:30

were supposedly celebrating their new

33:33

business venture with Dawkins to pay for top

33:35

college basketball recruits. They

33:37

had a duffel bag with tens

33:40

of thousands of dollars in cash to seal

33:42

the deal. The FBI agents

33:44

brought wine and a hidden

33:46

camera.

33:47

This is a way to do business,

33:49

right, Christian? Thank you. I

33:51

like it so much. The conspirators took the

33:54

money, but later they

33:56

started to get a little nervous about

33:59

Bailey and D'Angelo.

33:59

Angelo, their new business

34:01

partners. In this

34:03

call, Code and Dawkins are

34:05

talking about how odd it is that

34:08

Google doesn't turn up anything on their

34:10

two investors. Here's

34:12

what, here's just going through this shit.

34:15

I mean, you and I protect ourselves,

34:17

man, and I'm just saying that's just as a guy who's

34:19

real skeptical about this shit.

34:22

You and I need to get some background information on Jeff

34:25

and his chick. Okay.

34:27

Like, I'm just

34:29

telling you to protect your own ass and where she come

34:31

from or where her money come from. Your

34:33

name is going to be tied to it. My name is going

34:35

to be tied to it. Until I feel good

34:37

about these folks, I don't know. And I'm

34:39

looking up Jeff D'Angelo and can't find nothing on

34:42

him, and that shit is really concerning me.

34:44

Those misgivings didn't

34:47

keep Dawkins and Code from continuing

34:49

to do business with the undercover agents.

34:54

So using the recorded phone calls,

34:57

meetings with undercover agents, and other

34:59

evidence like emails and text messages,

35:02

SDNY built a case.

35:05

Their investigation rolled up guys

35:07

like Christian Dawkins and TJ Gasnola,

35:10

as well as Merle Code, James Gatto,

35:13

and Brad Augustine.

35:15

The meeting on the top floor

35:18

of the Cosmo Hotel in Las Vegas

35:20

was a key piece of the government's

35:22

evidence.

35:23

And a side note, it

35:26

came out years later that

35:28

one of the FBI agents there that

35:30

day removed thousands of dollars

35:33

in government cash from the room safe

35:35

and lost it playing blackjack at

35:37

the casino.

35:39

He eventually pleaded guilty to one

35:41

misdemeanor count of conversion of government

35:43

money. The FBI denied

35:46

all of our interview requests for this series.

35:51

So after that Vegas hotel sting,

35:54

the FBI had Augustine on

35:56

tape agreeing to steer a player

35:58

to the University of Louisville.

35:59

in exchange for just

36:02

under $13,000. A

36:05

few weeks after Augustine took the money

36:07

from the meeting in Vegas, he got

36:09

the call from Dawkins inviting him to

36:11

New York City to meet his investor,

36:14

the undercover agent Jill Bailey. The

36:18

morning Dawkins and Bailey were supposed

36:20

to meet with Augustine, the FBI

36:22

arrested Dawkins in his room at the W

36:25

Hotel, which brings

36:27

us back to Times Square, where

36:30

Augustine learned he was indicted on

36:32

Twitter.

36:34

Back

36:34

home, his wife Alexa

36:36

was also getting the news. By

36:39

the time I get home, my phone is blowing

36:41

up. Just text after

36:43

text, phone call after phone call. My phone actually

36:46

froze. And

36:48

when it finally unfroze, I answered

36:50

it. The first person who was calling in was a

36:52

mutual friend of ours. And at this point

36:54

I had no idea what was going on. And

36:57

I'm so confused and he's like, just

36:59

turn on ESPN right now.

37:00

Let's bring in our basketball insider, Jeff

37:02

Goodman. And Jeff, when they say the investigation

37:04

continues, you think, uh-oh,

37:07

what else is there? So what else is there? That's

37:09

exactly what I think, Neil. And we don't

37:11

know exactly what there's going to be, but

37:13

what we do know is there's 10 people that

37:16

have been arrested that could all roll

37:19

and give other names to the FBI.

37:23

Augustine didn't know what was happening

37:25

or why, just that

37:27

he was in trouble. First

37:30

he called Alexa and then

37:32

he called the FBI to turn

37:34

himself in. And I just sat there

37:37

and 45 minutes later, four

37:39

guys in suits get off the elevator. From

37:43

there, they took my phone, took my computer,

37:45

took my backpack and walked me downstairs.

37:48

And they

37:51

handcuffed me and put me in the back of a car. And

37:53

so I'm sitting in the back of a Crown Vic with

37:56

my hands cuffed behind my back, with a Fed

37:59

on my left and my right.

37:59

two in the front seat. And you

38:02

know, mind you, they're doing their job, right? Oh, you're going

38:04

to jail, you're going to prison for 80 years

38:06

and you have no idea. You know, you

38:08

better, you better tell us everything we want to

38:10

know. And I just remember at one point, like, like laughing. Like,

38:13

what are you guys talking about? Like, what

38:15

did I do? And I just

38:17

remember asking that question over, like, guys,

38:20

why am I here?

38:22

Brad Augustine knew it was a violation

38:25

of NCAA rules to take shoe company

38:27

money for steering players to certain schools,

38:30

but

38:30

he had no idea it was

38:32

a crime.

38:34

And as the FBI made its arrests

38:36

in the case, that was a common

38:38

reaction. When you tell me bribery

38:41

scandal, like I

38:43

imagine a scene from Goodfellas or something like

38:45

that. I mean, I thought the FBI only showed

38:48

up when like the mob was involved.

38:50

That's ESPN's Myron

38:52

Medcalf again. Literally, I did, I honestly

38:55

didn't know, like, I didn't know the FBI

38:57

could get involved with

39:00

something like college basketball. At

39:02

these events on the circuit, there's

39:06

not this sense of evil happening. The

39:09

FBI made it that that's

39:11

not what's happening, man. Of course,

39:13

you know, money's exchanging

39:16

hands. And of course, you understand that

39:18

things are happening that

39:20

would be NCAA violations. Are

39:22

they like violations? Everybody's

39:26

in it, man. If this thing is dirty,

39:29

we all got mud on us, man. All of us. Coming

39:34

up in our next episode, prosecutors

39:38

announced the arrests and outlined

39:40

the bag game. Coaches

39:43

at some of the nation's top programs,

39:46

soliciting and accepting cash

39:48

bribes. There were discussions primarily

39:50

what's going to be the next shoe to drop. How

39:53

far is this going to go?

39:55

And Billy Preston

39:58

waits to hear his name in the the

40:00

NBA draft. If I was able to play

40:02

that whole year at KU, it would have been a whole different

40:04

outcome. That's in

40:06

the next and final episode

40:09

of

40:09

The Bag Game. The

40:26

Bag Game is based on reporting by

40:28

me, Paula Levine and Mark Schlebau

40:31

for ESPN's investigative unit. Senior

40:34

producer is Matt Frasica. Senior

40:37

editorial producer is Eve Trowe.

40:40

Line producer is Kath Sankey. Associate

40:43

producers are Gus Navarro and Megan

40:45

Coyle. Production assistants

40:47

are Diamante McElvey and Isabella

40:50

Seaman. Archival producers

40:52

are Megan Coyle and G. Young Park.

40:55

Music

40:56

by Braxton Cook with additional

40:58

composition, scoring and sound design

41:00

by Hannes Brown.