2 ex-Eastern Michigan basketball players including 1 current, indicted in gambling scheme
YPSILANTI, MI - FEBRUARY 15: Eastern Michigan Eagles forward Da'Sean Nelson (2) goes in for a slam dunk during the Eastern Michigan Eagles vs the Toledo Rockets game on Saturday February 15, 2025 at George Gervin GameAbove Center in Ypsilanti, MI. (P
FOX 2 - Three Eastern Michigan basketball players - one current and two former, are ensnared in a massive betting scheme to rig college basketball and Chinese Basketball Association games, according to federal investigators.
Local perspective:
The US Attorney's Office has indicted current EMU player Carlos Hart as well as former players Da'Sean Nelson and Jalen Terry - among some nearly 40 college players from 17 programs in the point-shaving scheme.
Hart, Nelson and Terry were each charged with bribery in sporting contests and conspiracy to commit wire fraud by the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
Nelson and Terry previously refused to cooperate in the NCAA probe into sports betting after sportsbooks flagged suspicious betting during three of their games last season. A third former player, Jalin Billingsley also refused to cooperate but was not included in the indictment.
Hart is currently suspended from the team amid the investigation. He is a transfer accused of being a part of the scheme while playing there last season, and not while he was an Eagle.
Nelson, Terry and Billingsley did allow the NCAA to analyze their phones, prior to turning down participation in the investigation, asking that evidence from their phones be destroyed. The NCAA never confirmed allegations of improper betting at the time.
Dig deeper:
The scheme revolved around fixers recruiting players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for purposefully underperforming during a game, prosecutors said. The fixers would then place big bets against the players’ teams in those games, defrauding sportsbooks and other bettors, authorities said.
Calling it an "international criminal conspiracy," U.S. Attorney David Metcalf told reporters in Philadelphia that this case represents a "significant corruption of the integrity of sports." The indictment suggests that many others — including unnamed players — had a role in the scheme but weren’t charged, and Metcalf said the investigation was continuing.
YPSILANTI, MI - FEBRUARY 15: Eastern Michigan Eagles guard Jalen Terry (3) shoots a three during the Eastern Michigan Eagles vs the Toledo Rockets game on Saturday February 15, 2025 at George Gervin GameAbove Center in Ypsilanti, MI. (Photo by Steven
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.
According to the indictment unsealed Thursday, fixers started with two games in the Chinese Basketball Association in 2023 and, successful there, moved on to rigging NCAA games as recently as January 2025.
The fixers’ scheme grew to involve more than 39 players on more than 17 different NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams, who then rigged and attempted to rig more than 29 games, prosecutors said.
They wagered millions of dollars, generating "substantial proceeds" for themselves, and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to players in bribes, prosecutors said, with payments to players typically ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 per game.
Source: US Attorney's Office
Rigged games included those played by teams in major conferences, such as Big East and Atlantic 10, prosecutors said.
Some were games against nationally ranked programs while some were playoff games, including the first round of the Horizon League championship and the second round of the Southland Conference championship.
Some of the allegedly targeted teams were Tulane University, Buffalo State University, DePaul University, Robert Morris University, University of Southern Mississippi, Abilene Christian University, Eastern Michigan State University and the University of New Orleans.
Players often recruited teammates to cooperate by playing badly, sitting out or keeping the ball away from players who weren’t in on the scheme to prevent them from scoring. Sometimes the attempted fix failed, meaning the fixers lost their bets.
AKRON, OH - DECEMBER 19: Eastern Michigan Eagles guard Carlos Hart (2) drive es to the basket as Akron Zips guard Eric Mahaffey (4) defends during the first half of the college basketball game between the Eastern Michigan Eagles and Akron Zips on Dec
To lure players, fixers would text photos of stacks of cash. In one case, a fixer encouraged a player to recruit a St. Louis University teammate by texting him one such photo: "send that to him if he bite he bite if he don’t so be it lol," the indictment said.
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.
Former Eastern Michigan athletes at center of sports betting probe
Three former Eastern Michigan University basketball players were snagged in a separate sports betting investigation.
The Source: This report was compiled with information from the Associated Press, previous FOX 2 reporting and information from the US Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania.