Federal prosecutors charged 20 players and gamblers Thursday with conspiracy to manipulate the outcomes of college basketball games.
Bradley Ezewiro, a former member of the St. Louis University basketball team, was one of the players indicted.
In the indictment, prosecutors say Ezewiro worked to fix the result of SLU’s game against Duquesne University on Feb. 20, 2024. Ezewiro made sure his team intentionally underperformed in the first half of the game, they say, allowing gamblers he worked with to cash in on their bets against the Billikens.
Following the game, Ezewiro tried to recruit several players from other NCAA teams to participate in the scheme, according to court documents. The federal government provided text message evidence showing Ezewiro communicated with multiple players he believed would take part in the conspiracy.
The overall scheme included paying college basketball players between $10,000 and $30,000 to compromise the games and benefit sports bettors, according to the indictment.
“In placing these wagers on games they had fixed, the defendants defrauded sportsbooks, as well as individual sports bettors, who were all unaware that the defendants had corruptly manipulated the outcome of these games that should have been decided fairly, based on genuine competition and the best efforts of the players,” court documents say.
Ezewiro no longer plays college basketball. In the season prior to playing at SLU, he was a member of the Georgetown University team. After the 2023-24 season, Ezewiro transferred to the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
A spokesperson for SLU athletics declined to comment.
