Gassnola avoids jail in faculty bribery scandal
Former Adidas marketing consultant Thomas “T.J.” Gassnola, who cooperated with the federal authorities in its investigation into bribes and different corruption in faculty basketball, averted jail time and was sentenced to probation in New York on Tuesday.
Gassnola, a former youth basketball director from Springfield, Massachusetts, pleaded responsible in April 2018 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his position in pay-for-play schemes to steer recruits to Adidas-sponsored faculties.
He was sentenced to one-year supervised launch, together with two months of dwelling confinement and digital monitoring, and a $100 fantastic, based on courtroom data
Gassnola testified in a federal prison trial in October that led to the convictions of Adidas government James Gatto, Adidas marketing consultant Merl Code and aspiring enterprise supervisor Christian Dawkins, who have been accused of agreeing to funnel $100,000 from the shoe firm to the daddy of Louisville Cardinals signee Brian Bowen Jr.
Gassnola additionally admitted to serving to facilitate $90,000 from Adidas to Nicole Participant, the mom of former Kansas Jayhawks recruit Billy Preston. He additionally mentioned he agreed to pay $20,000 to Fenny Falmagne, the guardian for present Jayhawks participant Silvio De Sousa, to assist Falmagne “get out from below” a pay-for-play scheme to ship De Sousa to attend Maryland, which is sponsored by Underneath Armour.
Gassnola additionally testified he made funds of $40,000 to individuals near Dennis Smith Jr., a former five-star recruit who spent one-and-a-half seasons at NC State earlier than being a lottery decide within the 2017 NBA draft.
Moreover, Gassnola testified he gave $15,000 to a household pal of former Arizona star Deandre Ayton in 2015, when Ayton was in highschool, to ascertain a relationship between Adidas and the Ayton household.
In a sentencing memorandum to U.S. District Courtroom Choose Lewis A. Kaplan, federal prosecutors wrote glowingly of Gassnola’s cooperation.
“Over the course of a number of prolonged proffer classes, Gassnola spoke brazenly about his involvement within the prison conduct, describing his relationship with Gatto, Code, Dawkins, and others, and the funds to the households of student-athletes he made and facilitated on behalf of Adidas, in his position as a marketing consultant in an effort to assist the corporate within the ‘shoe wars,'” the sentencing memorandum mentioned.
“Specifically, and along with confirming particulars in regards to the deliberate funds to the Bowen and Little households, which have been identified to legislation enforcement, Gassnola recognized a sequence of illegal funds that had not, at that time, been recognized throughout the investigation, together with the $90,000 in funds to the mom of Billy Preston and $40,000 to the handler of Dennis Smith Jr.”