Former UW Husky Markelle Fultz named in NCAA corruption trial
SEATTLE – As the federal trial in NCAA men’s basketball corruption entered Day 2, former Washington Huskies star Markelle Fultz was implicated in a scandal by a former financial adviser.
Munish Sood, who pleaded guilty to conspiring with three men to facilitate money from Adidas to the families of high-profile recruits, told a jury Wednesday he worked with another sports agent to give a $30,000 loan to people connected with Fultz and an undisclosed amount to associates of former Utah star Kyle Kuzma while they were still enrolled at their universities, ESPN reported.
Sood said he made the payments at the request of NBA agent Stephen Pina of ASM Sports.
Fultz, an Upper Marlboro, Maryland, native, played one season with the Huskies and was taken No. 1 overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in last year’s NBA Draft. He did not sign with ASM and chose Raymond Brothers.
During Lorenzo Romar’s final year at Washington, Fultz played in 25 games during the 2016-17 season and averaged 23.2 points, 5.7 rebounds 5.9 assists and 1.2 blocks.
A shoulder injury limited him to 14 regular-season games as a rookie, and he averaged just 7.1 points, 3.8 assists and 3.1 rebounds with the Sixers.
In February when a Yahoo Sports report implicated Fultz along with 25 former and current basketball who received cash, Romar said he was unaware of the payout, which is an impermissible benefit and a violation of NCAA recruiting rules.
Romar was an assistant at Arizona last season before taking the head coaching job at Pepperdine.
Kuzma, the No. 27 overall pick, was named to the 2017-18 NBA All-Rookie Team after averaging 16.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.
Sood, the CEO and chief investment officer of Princeton Advisory Group, was one of eight men arrested by the FBI in September 2017 for bribing three college assistant coaches – Arizona’s Book Richardson, USC’s Tony Bland and Oklahoma State’s Lamont Evans – with thousands of dollars to influence their players to choose him as a financial adviser when they turned pro.
In August, Sood pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud and travel act offenses, payments of bribes to an agent of a federally funded organization and wire fraud conspiracy, per ESPN’s Mark Schlabach.
Sood faces up to 35 years in prison. As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to testify in the federal criminal trial involving Adidas executive Jim Gatto, former Adidas consultant Merl Code and Christian Dawkins, a former runner for one-time NBA agent Andy Miller.
This summer, the NCAA adopted widespread reforms to college basketball’s policies and guidelines intended, in part, to reduce the influence of shoe companies on the recruiting process.