Last October, a federal jury in Manhattan sent shockwaves through the closely-tied worlds of college basketball and sneaker companies. It convicted Adidas director of global marketing James Gatto, Adidas consultant and basketball organizer Merl Code and client recruiter Christian Dawkins of wire fraud and conspiracy. The verdict established that payments designed to lure elite high school basketball into attending Adidas-sponsored college basketball programs are not only blatant violations of employment contracts, university honor codes and NCAA rules, but they are also crimes.
Felonies, in fact.
In March, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Gatto, Dawkins and Code to prison sentences lasting either nine months (Gatto) or six months (Dawkins and Code).