Corruption case against USC's Tony Bland shows what government had … and didn't
The floor-to-ceiling curtains were drawn in the sprawling penthouse suite as midnight approached and Tony Bland sank into the couch that, on video, blended into the low light.
Assistant coaches from some of the nation's top college basketball programs slipped out of triple-digit temperatures on the Las Vegas Strip and into the opulent quarters at the Cosmopolitan Hotel earlier that day in July 2017. They heard a sales pitch from Christian Dawkins, chief executive of a fledgling sports management company, financial advisor Marty Blazer, and an investor from New Jersey named Jeff D'Angelo - every minute recorded by a hidden camera.
The men wanted the coaches to steer their top players toward Loyd Inc. - shorthand for Living Out Your Dreams - when they became professionals.
Two months later, FBI agents arrested Bland, then USC's associate head coach, and nine other men after a two-year probe into college basketball corruption. During a televised news conference, Joon Kim, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, warned would-be cheaters that "we have your playbook" and suggested they come clean because "it's better for you to be calling us than for us to be calling you." Subpoenas were issued to major universities, big-name coaches and shoe companies.
