Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania charged 26 people connected to an alleged point-shaving scheme that involved dozens of current and former college basketball players, including three DePaul players who faced St. John’s in the 2023-24 season.
The federal indictment unsealed on Thursday alleges that the gambling ring fixed or attempted to fix 29 games played between September 2022 and February 2025. One of the impacted games was the March 5, 2024 meeting between St. John’s and DePaul in Chicago, in which the Red Storm blew out the Blue Demons by a score of 104-77.
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According to the indictment, defendant Jalen Smith allegedly bribed former DePaul players Jalen Terry, Da’Sean Nelson, Micawber Etienne, and an unidentified fourth person to perform poorly in the first half of three games during the 2023-24 season, including that contest against St. John’s on March 5.
“Etienne texted defendant SMITH to confirm that he and his teammates had agreed to fix this game, telling defendant SMITH that the DePaul players ‘trynna make yah the big money while we take a little cut… I just talked to them and we gon see what the spread is’ for the game against St. John’s,” the indictment states, “Defendant SMITH and Etienne further texted about defendant SMITH delivering the ‘bread,’ or bribe payment, to him and the DePaul players after the St. John’s game.”
The court documents claim Smith and Etienne communicated via text about their plans to fix this game, so DePaul would not cover the 15-point first-half spread in favor of St. John’s. Other defendants, Marves Fairley and Shane Hennen, allegedly placed wagers with various sportsbooks totaling at least $52,395 on St. John’s to cover the first-half spread.
St. John’s took a 54-28 lead over DePaul at halftime, ending the half on a 21-2 run. In the first half, Terry scored zero points on 0-of-1 from the field, while Nelson only scored four points on 1-of-5 shooting.
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The indictment then claims that after the game, Smith traveled to Chicago to deliver $40,000 in cash in bribe payments owed to the DePaul players involved in the scheme.
Soon after the indictment was unsealed, the DePaul University athletic department released a statement.
“DePaul University is deeply disappointed that former student-athletes were named in the indictment for alleged gambling activities during the 2023-24 men’s basketball season. No current student-athletes were members of the 2023-24 team. The university has a longstanding commitment to educating our athletics community about the dangers and consequences of sports gambling… We will continue to evaluate and strengthen our education, monitoring, and compliance efforts to protect the integrity of competition and the well-being of our student-athletes. The university will cooperate fully with any investigation.”
