Federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania have asked a judge to sentence Jalen Smith to 87 months in prison and order about $1.15 million in restitution for his role in a college-basketball point-shaving and illegal-bookmaking scheme. Smith was due to be sentenced Tuesday at 11 a.m. Eastern in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The recommendation was made in an Oct. 2 sentencing memorandum. Smith pleaded guilty to bribery, wire fraud and illegal firearm possession in Philadelphia. He was the first of 26 defendants in the Philadelphia prosecution to admit criminal wrongdoing, according to NBC News.
Prosecutors portrayed Smith as a leader in the NCAA operation, calling him its “most prolific recruiter and manager of corrupt players.” They said he recruited dozens of players, urged them to recruit teammates, directed game fixing, communicated frequently with players and arranged or personally delivered bribes.
The government also cited a stolen semiautomatic machine gun and a prior felony drug-trafficking conviction in seeking the sentence. Smith’s lawyer, Rocco C. Cipparone, said the earlier conviction was an eight-year-old marijuana-possession-with-intent-to-sell case for which Smith had served his sentence, and that Smith had already resolved the weapons charge.
Cipparone requested a substantial downward variance from the advisory guidelines. He argued that Smith was brought into the NCAA operation as an organizer rather than originating it, had no role in the earlier Chinese Basketball Association component, and should receive greater credit for pleading guilty early. The defense also asked the court to weigh Smith’s untreated ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder, and submitted nine supporting letters from relatives, educators and people involved in volunteer and support services.
The federal indictment alleged that fixers initially bribed players in China’s top men’s basketball league during the 2022-23 season before expanding to NCAA men’s basketball. It named Smith, Roderick Winkler and Alberto Laureano as participants enlisted to help operate the NCAA portion. The indictment alleged the broader scheme ran from at least September 2022 through at least February 2025.
During the 2023-24 and 2024-25 NCAA seasons, players were allegedly offered bribes generally ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 a game to influence first-half or full-game point spreads. Fixers then wagered against teams with bribed players through numerous sportsbooks, the indictment said.
Prosecutors said the NCAA operation involved 39 players across 17 teams, more than $3 million in wagers and losses of more than $1.1 million for legal sportsbooks. Separate accounts of the prosecution said more than 29 games were fixed or targeted for fixing. The bribery count carries a maximum five-year term, while the wire-fraud and firearms counts each carry maximum terms of 20 years.
