After more than a month had passed since ten people, including four Division I assistant coaches, were arrested in connection with an FBI investigation into corruption and fraud, indictments were handed out to eight of the ten. The two people who have yet to be indicted are Munish Sood and Brad Augustine, with Sood being a financial planner based in New Jersey and Augustine formerly running the 1-Family grassroots program.
1-Family, which is based in Florida, is an adidas-sponsored grassroots program. Among the eight men who were indicted are two men with deep connections to adidas, Jim Gatto and Merl Code. While they’re not being indicted does not mean that Sood and Augustine have already begun to cooperate with authorities, it is a development that bears mentioning.
According to Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports, Sood and Augustine no longer appear by name in the indictments, with Sood now referred to as co-conspirators. Sood is “CC-1" and Augustine “CC-2" in the updated reports.
Indictments in the case were handed out this week, with coaches Tony Bland (USC), Lamont Evans (Oklahoma State), Chuck Person (Auburn) and Emanuel “Book” Richardson (Arizona) among those who will now have to sit in front of a grand jury. It should be noted that even though Sood and Augustine have not been indicted at this time, that does not rule out the possibility down the line.
There’s still a lot to be figured out with regards to this case and its ultimate impact on college basketball. Much of that will depend upon what the FBI gathers from those willing to speak in order to avoid serious penalty.
