A federal jury in the Southern District in New York found aspiring sports agent Christian Dawkins guilty on counts of bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery on Wednesday. Youth coach Merl Code was also found guilty on a conspiracy charge in the two-week trial regarding corruption in college basketball.
The defense argued that the men were led astray by an informant and undercover agents working for the FBI who posed as investors in Dawkins’s management company. Dawkins testified that he pushed back on the fake investors’ interest in paying coaches, telling the jury it made no sense because the coaches had little influence about player decisions on who to hire as agents and business managers.