Kennesaw State basketball standout Simeon Cottle is among 20 people who have been charged in a points-shaving scheme, according to a federal indictment.
Cottle, who is facing federal charges of bribery in sporting contests, aiding and abetting, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, is alleged to have been contacted by overseas professional basketball player Antonio Blakeney and then further recruited his teammates to participate in a sports betting conspiracy 2022-25.
Former Kennesaw State forward Demond Robinson was also named in the indictment, which specifically calls out KSU’s March 1, 2024, game against Queens University.
According to the indictment, Jalen Smith — who is “active in the training and development of local basketball players for professional scouting” — texted Cottle: “l need both of y’all on FaceTime with me twice today so let’s see if we can do a call right after shoot around … just to make sure y’all good and really locked in. … (T)his money guaranteed(,) ima be at the game with (the money) so I just don’t want no issues all yall end.”
The fixers, as the indictment refers to them, placed various bets of approximately $20,000 on Queens to cover the first-half spread along with several parlays.
Cottle, Robinson and an unnamed third KSU player “underperformed in and influenced the first half as they had agreed,” the indictment said.
Defendants went to the game to make the bribery payments — valued at approximately $100,000 — to the KSU players, according to the indictment.
A few days later, Smith allegedly delivered a bribe payment on campus at KSU.
Cottle told Smith he attempted to involve other teammates, according to the indictment. Smith offered to “flash 200k or sumn to help persuade,” however the teammates were uninterested, it states.
Cottle, a senior from College Park who was named preseason Conference USA player of the year, has appeared in all 17 games this season for KSU. He has averaged more than 20 points per game.
In total, the scheme involved “more than 39 players on more than 17 different NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams who then fixed and attempted to fix more than 29 NCAA Division I men’s basketball games,” according to the indictment.
NCAA President Charlie Baker issued a statement Thursday, saying that the “pattern of college basketball game integrity conduct revealed by law enforcement today is not entirely new information to the NCAA.”
Baker added: “The Association has and will continue to aggressively pursue sports betting violations in college athletics using a layered integrity monitoring program that covers over 22,000 contests, but we still need the remaining states, regulators and gaming companies to eliminate threats to integrity - such as collegiate prop bets - to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and predatory bettors. We also will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement. We urge all student-athletes to make well-informed choices to avoid jeopardizing the game and their eligibility.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reached out to Kennesaw State athletics for comment.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated with more information.
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