By Chris O’Kelley
Introduction
Filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on January 14, 2026, United States v. Smith, et al. centers on a sports gambling ring that operated during the 2022–2023 Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) season, and the 2023–2024 and 2024–2025 NCAA men’s basketball seasons. Defendants Jalen Smith, Marves Fairley, Shane Hennen, Roderick Winkler, and Alberto Laureano allegedly bribed college basketball players to underperform in certain games – often referred to as “point shaving” – and placed illicit bets on those games.
The federal prosecutor brought five counts, indicting 20 defendants on Counts 1 and 2 and a lesser number on Counts 3, 4, and 5. Most of the indictment focused on the bribery in sporting contests charge, with 55 of the 70 pages devoted to Count 1 and ten pages to the other four counts. Altogether, the operation included at least 39 players on more than 17 different teams and at least 29 NCAA basketball games.
Allegations
United States v. Smith, et al. alleges the misconduct began during the 2022–2023 CBA season, when Fairley and Hennen recruited Antonio Blakeney of the Jiangsu Dragons for a point shaving scheme. Fairley and Hennen placed large wagers, at least $100,000, on Jiangsu not to cover the spread in two games. In the first game, Blakeney scored well below his average point total and did not play in the next game, but recruited another player who would accept a bribe to ensure Jiangsu did not cover the spread.
The indictment contends that following the successful game-fixing in the CBA, Jalen Smith, Roderick Winkler, and Alberto Laureano joined Fairley, Hennen, and Blakeney in the plot. Throughout the 2023–2024 and 2024–2025 NCAA men’s basketball seasons, the organizers reportedly recruited players from the NCAA to fix college basketball games. When possible, the defendants recruited multiple players on the same team and targeted players for whom the bribes, ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 in cash payments per game, could supplement or exceed NIL opportunities. The indictment claims the conspirators selected games in which the players’ teams were not favored, and the players were responsible for ensuring their team lost by at least the projected spread. To make the gambling ring more difficult to detect, the defendants utilized multiple sportsbooks to place the bets, as well as “straw” or “proxy” bettors.
As instructed, the players allegedly sought to influence the outcome of their games through poor performance and nonparticipation. In games where the bettors reportedly wagered on the first half, the players would underperform in that half, then perform much better in the second half. In one instance, a player did not score in the first half, then scored 16 points in the second half. The indictment contends the wagers totaled in the millions of dollars, and the players collectively received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribe payments. The indictment claims that the most the group wagered on a single game was at least $458,000, with many of the wagers on individual games totaling over $100,000.
Count One Through Count Five
The defendants are charged with multiple federal offenses for allegedly participating in the sports gambling scheme. Twenty defendants are accused of bribery in sporting contests and conspiracy to commit wire fraud stemming from the reported bribe payments to the basketball players and their plans to transmit interstate wire communications to defraud sportsbooks and individual sports bettors.
The final three counts are all related to specific wagers the conspirators allegedly used electronic communications to place at a Philadelphia casino. In Counts 3 and 4, Fairley and Hennen are charged with wire fraud for using interstate electronic transmissions to wager on two separate games in the Chinese Basketball Association. The same statute is invoked in Count 5 against Smith, Fairley, Hennen, Winkler, and Laureano for using electronic communications to wager on an NCAA basketball game between St. Bonaventure and La Salle. All defendants are required to forfeit any property derived from the alleged enterprise.
Implications
This indictment is the third related to sports gambling in the previous five months. Marves Fairley and Shane Hennen were indicted alongside current and former professional athletes and coaches in the National Basketball Association for insider trading on NBA games and rigging high-stakes poker games. Although the cases share two alleged co-conspirators, they differ in that the NBA case is based on insider trading, while the NCAA case centers on alleged game-fixing. The second indictment involved two Cleveland Guardians pitchers who were charged in November 2025 for participating in a pitch-fixing scheme. This issue is not exclusive to sport, as prediction markets, which allow bettors to place wagers on the outcome of events far outside the world of sports, have also experienced market manipulation, as individuals with inside information profit from and influence the outcome of events.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act unconstitutional in May of 2018, leading to the legalization of sports gambling in 41 states, there have been three major scandals resulting in federal charges, along with numerous instances of professional and collegiate athletes receiving suspensions or bans for betting on sports. Proponents argued that legalized gambling would lead to greater oversight and that games would be less susceptible to outside influence; however, the results have so far shown that the proliferation of sports gambling has coincided with an increase in attempts to fix the results of games.
As the sports gambling industry continues to grow, the recent indictments of NBA, MLB, and NCAA athletes may just be the tip of the iceberg, as gamblers and players could again conspire to alter the outcome of collegiate and professional sporting events.
Chris O’Kelley is a doctoral student at Florida State University.
References
United States v. Smith et al; No. 2:26-cr-00023-NIQA (E.D. PA. Jan. 14, 2026).
