The Shoe Company's Recruits

A marketing director at a major sportswear company, a consultant working for the company and an aspiring sports agent were accused of secretly paying the families of top high-school basketball players to steer them to universities the company sponsored. One family received about $40,000, another about $50,000, and a third was promised $100,000 in instalments. Prosecutors said the payments were disguised with false invoices as money for youth basketball programmes, and that the players then signed eligibility forms falsely certifying they had followed amateurism rules, so the universities handed out athletic scholarships they would not otherwise have given. The defence argued the men were trying to help the universities land star recruits, that the schools benefited and wanted deniability, and that no university was cheated.