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Christian Dawkins, Merl Code Found Guilty of Conspiracy in NCAA Bribery Trial
May 8, 2019
The jury reached a guilty verdict for aspiring sports agent Christian Dawkins and former Adidas consultant Merl Code in the NCAA corruption trial.
Per Adam Zagoria of the New York Times, Dawkins was found guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery and Code was found guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Dawkins was facing a total of six charges, while Code was facing four charges in the case.
"I never bribed anybody and there's no evidence that I bribed anybody," Code told Zagoria after the verdict. "There was no emails, no text messages, no phone calls where I bribed anybody at any time."
ESPN.com's Jeff Borzello reported Monday defense attorneys made their closing arguments and the jury was set to begin deliberations.
Borzello and Mark Schlabach noted Code and Dawkins will receive their sentencing from United States District Court Judge Edgardo Ramos at a later date.
Code and Dawkins were among four people found guilty last October of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of pay-for-play schemes. United States district judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Code and Dawkins to six months in prison.
The scandal first broke in September 2017 when the FBI arrested 10 people as part of a two-year investigation into bribery and corruption throughout college basketball.
In February 2018, Yahoo Sports' Pete Thamel and Pat Forde obtained federal documents and bank records found in discovery that detail meetings and/or payouts between Dawkins and several high-profile recruits and coaches.