PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An investigation into a sprawling betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games has ensnared 26 people, including more than a dozen college basketball players who tried to fix games as recently as last season, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
The scheme generally revolved around gamblers who placed bets and recruited players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for purposefully underperforming during a game, prosecutors said. Those fixers would then bet 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 many others, including unnamed players, had a role in the scheme but weren’t charged, and Metcalf said the investigation was continuing.
The indictment is the latest gambling scandal to hit the sports world since a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision unleashed a meteoric rise in legal sports betting.
It follows a federal takedown of illegal gambling operations linked to professional basketball, NCAA lifetime bans on at least 10 basketball players for betting and two Major League baseball players facing federal charges that they took bribes to help gamblers.
The varying charges against the 26 defendants, filed in federal court in Philadelphia, include bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy. Five of the defendants were described as fixers; three with connections to players through coaching and training and two described as gamblers and sports handicappers.
The 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 indictment said. Their 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, raking in “substantial proceeds” for themselves, and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to players in bribes, prosecutors said. Payments to players typically ranged from $10,000 to $30,000 per game, they said.
In a statement, NCAA President Charlie Baker said protecting the integrity of competition is of the utmost importance for the NCAA and that is investigating, or has finished investigating, almost all of the teams in the indictment.
Prosecutors named more than 40 schools involved in games that were targeted by the scheme. Those included Tulane University and DePaul University.
Rigged games included major conferences and some playoffs, including the first round of the Horizon League championship and the second round of the Southland Conference championship, prosecutors said.
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.
To entice players, fixers would text photos of stacks of cash. In one case, a fixer encouraged a player to recruit a Saint 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.
In another instance, a fixer trying to persuade an Eastern Michigan University player to get two of his teammates to help fix a game against Wright State University texted, “bro let me send 3k right now a band for each of yall so you know I ain’t joking," the indictment said.
Cash payments were hand delivered, although prosecutors noted that a fixer didn't deliver the cash he promised to four Alabama State University players who helped fix a 2024 game against the University of Southern Mississippi.
Four of the players charged — Simeon Cottle, Carlos Hart, Oumar Koureissi and Camian Shell — played for their current teams in the last few days, although the allegations against them don't involve this season, but the 2023-24 season.
Of the defendants, 15 played basketball for Division I NCAA schools during 2024-25 season, prosecutors say. Five others last played in the NCAA in the 2023-24 season while another, former NBA player Antonio Blakeney, played in the Chinese Basketball Association in the 2022-23 season.
At the end of the Chinese Basketball Association's 2022-23 season, fixers put nearly $200,000 in bribe payments and shared winnings from two rigged games into Blakeney's storage locker in Florida, authorities said.
In 2023, court papers said one fixer reassured another by texting him there were no guarantees “in this world but death taxes and Chinese basketball.”
Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writer Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia contributed.
David Metcalf, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, speaks during a news conference to announce charges against 20 people including 15 former college basketball players, in what prosecutors called a betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
PARIS (AP) — Governments across the world scrambled to organize the return of their citizens from the Middle East on Wednesday as travel across the region remained heavily disrupted by the widening Iran war.
The first flight repatriating French citizens stranded in the Middle East landed in Paris early Wednesday as French authorities booked about 100 seats onboard for vulnerable people on a priority list, said Eleonore Caroit, the minister responsible for French Nationals Abroad.
Students also returned to Milan after being evacuated from Dubai by the Italian government. Valerio Schiavoi, a member of the World Students Connection program, said he was part of a group involved in United Nations diplomatic simulations in Dubai.
“We received the news that Iran had been bombed by USA and Israel,” he told Italian news agency LaPresse. “And as soon as we leave the room, we start to hear the sounds of military planes and so on. And the panic starts a bit. Through the window we could see missiles passing by and alarms kept sounding but we didn’t know what to do.”
With airspace closed or heavily restricted across much of the Gulf, passengers have been stranded not only in the region but also in cities far from the fighting after their connecting flights were canceled. Amid the travel chaos and with commercial flights limited, governments have been mounting emergency operations.
The French plane departed from Muscat, Oman and made a stop in Cairo, Egypt, before touching down at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. Another flight carrying French citizens, who were based in Israel and managed to cross the border with Egypt, should arrive in France later Wednesday, Caroit said.
“We are focusing on a priority group — families with children, people affected by illness, old people,” Caroit told TF1 broadcaster. “Our goal is to help repatriate as quickly as possible the French people who wish to return.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said an estimated 400,000 French people are present in the region affected by the conflict, either as residents or temporarily passing through.
More than 20,000 of the more than 36,000 flights scheduled to fly to or from the Middle East between the start of the war and Wednesday have been canceled, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
The United States told its citizens to leave more than a dozen countries in the region right away using any available commercial transportation. The countries include Iran and Israel, as well as Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
In Britain, the government said a chartered flight will take off from Oman late Wednesday to bring back some of the thousands of U.K. nationals in the Gulf. It said the most vulnerable will be prioritized for the first of what is expected to be a series of flights.
The Foreign Office said more than 130,000 British nationals in the Middle East have registered their presence with the government since the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict broke out, though not all are trying to leave. Many of those are in the UAE, and the government has advised against trying to travel overland to Oman.
Commercial airlines are starting to resume some flights, with Etihad, Emirates and Virgin Atlantic all due to operate flights from the UAE to London on Wednesday.
But scores of travelers have struggled to find a way home. Li Qian, a 44-year-old tourist from Hangzhou, has been stuck in Abu Dhabi with her family after airspace closures disrupted their return flight to China. She said she received repeated missile alerts on her mobile phone and saw smoke rising near areas they had visited.
“It was frightening. ... We just want to get home as soon as possible,” she said, adding that she worried about her mother’s high blood pressure medication and her child’s return to school.
Agnes Chen Pun, a Hong Kong expatriate who moved with her family to Dubai last year, said she struggled to find plane tickets to leave the region. She moved first to a resort in Fujairah, then to a desert resort near Sharjah amid fears of potential attacks and local fires.
“We were so nervous, so anxious,” said Chen, a partner at Asia Bankers Club, a Hong Kong- and Dubai-based investment company.
She said she considered a 13-seat private jet costing $268,000 — but ultimately secured commercial tickets for around $2,200 per person to Singapore. Her departure is still uncertain. Despite the disruption, Chen said she plans to return to the UAE once the situation stabilizes.
“I think the scare, the fears, will be short-term,” she said.
Ireland’s foreign minister said Emirates airlines would operate a flight from Dubai to Dublin on Wednesday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee welcomed the development as the government tried to help some of its estimated 22,000 to 23,000 Irish citizens in the Middle East return home. The Irish government also plans to charter a flight for about 280 people from Oman in the coming days.
Elsewhere, Norway’s Foreign Ministry said it’s sending an “emergency team” to Dubai to reinforce the Norwegian embassy’s team helping an estimated 1,500 Norwegians registered in the city.
Associated Press writers from around the world contributed to this story.
A display in the arrivals terminal of the Henri Coanda International Airport shows cancelled flights originating in Middle East countries, in Otopeni, Romania, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Lindsay Elvidge and husband Ric, from Somerset, arrive at Terminal 4 of London Heathrow Airport on a flight from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Monday, March 2, 2026. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)
A man celebrates as he arrives at the International Airport in Frankfurt, Germany, after being evacuated from Dubai on a commercial flight, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
The flight from Abu Dhabi with passengers returned to Italy arrives at Fiumicino Airport, in Rome, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (Valentina Stefanelli/LaPresse via AP)
