Former DePaul University basketball players are among 26 players and fixers charged in an NCAA basketball game rigging scheme.

The FBI announced charges Thursday morning. Experts said it is the most incredible college basketball scandal in years, so large and with so much money on the line that it's hard to believe no one noticed this happening before. 

The indictment accuses players on more than 17 different NCAA Division I basketball teams of fixing or attempting to fix more than 29 games between Sept. 2022 and Feb. 2025. DePaul is one of the schools named in the indictment.

According to the indictment, in late Feb. 2024, the fixers named in the indictment offered bribes to DePaul players to fix a men's basketball games through point shaving. 

Fixers started with two games in the Chinese Basketball Association in 2023 and, successful there, moved on to fixing NCAA games as recently as January 2025, authorities say. The "bribe payments" to players ranged from $10,000 to $30,000 per game, authorities said.  

Prosecutors say fixers Jalen Smith, Alberto Laureano and Antonio Blakeney recruited forward Micawber Etienne, who they also asked to recruit three of his teammates, to participate in the scheme. Etienne is not named as a defendant in this indictment, but is charged elsewhere. 

The Jalen Smith named in the indictment is not the current Chicago Bulls basketball player, who, at the time of the alleged fixing, was playing in the NBA first for the Indiana Pacers and then, starting in 2024, with the Bulls. Smith's contract with the Bulls runs through the 2027 season. The indictment specifies that the Jalen Smith charged lived in North Carolina and worked to train and develop local basketball players for professional scouting.

Prosecutors say Etienne, DePaul guard Jalen Terry, forward Da'Sean Nelson and one unnamed player then underperformed during a Feb. 24, 2024 game against Georgetown at Chicago's Wintrust Arena after the fixers has placed $27,000 in bets on Georgetown to "cover the first half spread of approximately 2.5 points."

Then, prosecutors said, Smith then texted Etienne to arrange payment of bribe money. According to the indictment, Smith went to Chicago to deliver $40,000 in cash personally to Terry, Nelson, Etienne and the fourth player.

Smith and the other fixers continued to work with Etienne, Terry, Nelson and unnamed player to rig games in March against the Butler Univrsity Bulldogs and the St. John's University Red Storms.

Court documents cite texts between fixers trying to recruit Nelson calling the team at the time the "worst team in the Big East." Their record that season was 0-20. 

Last October, CBS News Detroit reported that Terry and Nelson, who played for Eastern Michigan University during the 2024-2025 season, were not cooperating with a gambling  investigation, according to the NCAA.

The FBI also said that some of the people alleged to be involved in the scheme were former college players now accused of bribing current college players to participate in the point-shaving scheme.

Five defendants are described by prosecutors as fixers, including two they say worked in the training and development of basketball players. Another was a trainer and former coach, one was a former NCAA player and two were described as gamblers, influencers and sports handicappers.

Concerns about gambling and college sports have grown since 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on the practice, leading some states to legalize it to varying degrees. The NCAA does not allow athletes or staff to bet on college games, but it briefly allowed student-athletes to bet on professional sports last year before rescinding that decision in November.  

DePaul University Athletics released a statement, writing in part, "DePaul University is deeply disappointed that former student-athletes were named in the indictment for alleged gambling activities during the 2023-2024 men's basketball season. No current student-athletes were members of the 2023-2024 team.  The university has a longstanding commitment to educating our athletics community about the dangers and consequences of sports gambling."

They said they are and will cooperate fully with any investigation. 

Former Chicago Bulls player Antonio Blakeney was also named in the suit for purposefully point shaving while playing in the Chinese Basketball Association. He played for the Bulls from 2017-2019. 

"This is the most serious college gambling case we have had in three or four generations," said Lester Munson, a former investigative reporter for Sports Illustrated. "This is embarrassing for the NCAA — the NCAA has done a bad job of policing this kind of thing —and for fans, particularly for fans who went to some of these games. It's basically a fraud upon the fans who pay good money to come to these games that they think are games, that are honest, that have some integrity and are genuine competition."

DePaul fired their head coach in Jan. 2024. There is no one else involved in this case that is still with their basketball program.