Philadelphia: NCAA Point-Shaving ‘Fixer’ Gets 6 Years; Court Papers Detail a $30,000 Bet at Live! Casino

A North Carolina man prosecutors called one of the leaders of a scheme to fix NCAA men’s basketball games for sports bettors was sentenced on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, to six years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia said.

Jalen Smith, 30, of Charlotte, received 72 months in prison, three years of supervised release, about $1.1 million in restitution and a $75,000 forfeiture from U.S. District Judge Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro. He had pleaded guilty in March 2026 to bribery in sporting contests, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and possession of a firearm by a felon. The judge ordered him to report to prison by noon on December 1, 2026, according to the federal docket.

What each side asked for

The probation office calculated an advisory guideline range of 70 to 87 months, the sentencing memos show. In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors asked for a sentence “at the higher end of the guideline range,” citing what they called his leadership role in “an extensive scheme that corrupted college basketball on a national scale” and the gun he had despite a prior felony drug conviction.

His lawyer, Rocco C. Cipparone Jr., asked for “a substantial downward variance” below that range in the defense memorandum. He argued that Smith had “no role whatsoever” in the earlier phase of the scheme, which fixed games in the Chinese Basketball Association, and that the guideline calculation treated him as a manager or supervisor, a lesser role than organizer or leader. The defense also objected to parts of that calculation. The judge’s 72 months landed two months above the bottom of the range.

The defense memo also describes Smith’s own betting. Asked by the probation office about gambling, he said “not anymore” and explained that he had bet on sports for about a year, visiting casinos roughly twice a month and typically “break[ing] even,” according to the memo.

How the fix worked

Prosecutors say the scheme ran from about September 2022 to February 2025. After profiting on fixed CBA games, the group turned to NCAA Division I men’s basketball in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Fixers recruited players, often on underdog teams, and offered them bribes usually of $10,000 to $30,000 a game to underperform so their team would fail to cover the point spread. The group then bet against those teams through various sportsbooks.

Overall, prosecutors say, more than 39 players on more than 17 Division I teams fixed or tried to fix more than 29 games. The scheme produced more than $3 million in fraudulent wagers and more than $1.1 million in losses to sportsbooks around the country.

Games and bets named in the government’s memo

The government’s sentencing memorandum walks through specific games. Among them:

• Nicholls State vs. McNeese State, February 17, 2024: Two Nicholls State players underperformed so the team would not cover the spread, in exchange for bribes of about $20,000 each, the memo says. The fixers bet at least about $100,000 on McNeese State, and Smith then traveled to Louisiana to arrange delivery of about $32,000 in cash bribes.
• La Salle vs. St. Bonaventure, February 21, 2024: The fixers offered La Salle players bribes to underperform in the first half, then placed at least $247,000 in wagers on St. Bonaventure to cover the first-half spread, including a $30,000 bet with FanDuel Sportsbook at Live! Casino in Philadelphia, according to the memo.
• Fordham vs. Duquesne, February 23, 2024: The fixers bet at least about $195,000 on Duquesne. Fordham covered the spread anyway and the fixers lost, the memo says. Smith told a Fordham player who had taken a bribe, “You did your job for sure.”

Prosecutors say many of the bets were parlays that combined several fixed games to raise the payout. In their memo, they say the wagers defrauded both the sportsbooks and individual bettors, “who were all unaware” that the games had been manipulated, and that the sportsbooks would not have paid had they known.

The gun charge

Smith was indicted in the basketball case in January 2026. He was charged separately with being a felon in possession of a firearm after a loaded semi-automatic pistol was found in a 2025 search of his Charlotte home, prosecutors said. The two cases were combined for sentencing.

The FBI’s Philadelphia field office investigated, with help from FBI New York and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Louis D. Lappen and Jerome M. Maiatico prosecuted the case.