On an afternoon in early June of 2013, Jerome Allen sat under a golden chandelier in the lobby of the Fontainebleau, the famously opulent hotel in the heart of Miami's Millionaires' Row, and waited for the man who had promised to change his life. It was around 4 p.m., and the room was sparsely populated, allowing the Penn basketball coach a clear view of the bronzed businessman with salt-and-pepper hair who soon approached.
Allen would remember how Philip Esformes, a health-care executive from Miami Beach, was holding two cellphones and a bulky plastic bag with drawstring handles. They had met once, earlier that year, and Esformes had told Allen that he was desperate for his teenage son Morris to attend Penn's Wharton School and play for the Quakers.