A trio of former Southern Miss men’s basketball players is currently entangled in a federal indictment regarding a national point-shaving scheme.
A federal indictment unsealed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Thursday revealed that 20 men, 15 of whom are college basketball players on 17 NCAA Division I teams, are facing charges in the scandal. Former Golden Eagle guard Arlando “Mo” Arnold is among those charged, while two of his teammates were allegedly involved, though their identities have not been released at this time.
The scheme generally revolved around fixers – or people who arrange or orchestrate certain outcomes in sports to guarantee illegal gambling profits – recruiting players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for those players purposefully underperforming during a game, prosecutors said. Then the fixers placed big bets against those players’ teams in those games, defrauding sportsbooks and other bettors, according to the indictment.
Fixers started with two games in the Chinese Basketball Association, and once successful there, moved on to fixing NCAA games as recently a January 2025, authorities say. The “bribe payments” to players ranged from $10,000 to $30,000 per game.
Arnold is alleged to have been recruited alongside a pair of teammates to participate in point-shaving in February 2024. The trio is said to have engaged in multiple FaceTime calls with accused fixers Marves Fairley and Jalen Smith in which they discussed ways to fix games the Golden Eagles were scheduled to play.
Ahead of a Feb. 28, 2024, matchup at South Alabama, Arnold and his two teammates allegedly agreed to underperform in the first half to satisfy a 1.5-point spread favoring the Jaguars. Bettors, under the guidance of Fairley and fellow accused fixer Shane Hennen, placed around $275,000 on South Alabama to cover the first-half spread. Hennen and Fairley have also been indicted in a betting scheme involving NBA games.
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While Arnold did not score in the half, the game was tied at the midway intermission, meaning Southern Miss had beaten the spread, costing the bettors money.
According to the indictment, Arnold agreed to make up for the losses the bettors incurred by agreeing to help fix another Golden Eagle game. The Picayune native and another teammate were allegedly tasked with underperforming to satisfy a five-point first-half spread in favor of Louisiana on March 1, 2024. One Southern Miss player mentioned in the indictment reportedly agreed not to play in the matchup. Bettors are said to have placed around $161,000 on the Ragin’ Cajuns to cover.
The bet panned out, with Southern Miss trailing by 15-points at halftime. Arnold only scored seven points in the matchup and was an inefficient 3-8 from the field. He also had three turnovers. Notably, Austin Crowley, the Golden Eagles’ leading scorer during the 2023-24 campaign, did not play.
“Without the Southern Mississippi players intentionally underperforming in the second half of the game, Southern Mississippi played substantially better, with both teams scoring 38 points,” a portion of the indictment reads. “Louisiana-Lafayette won the game 77 to 61.”
Two days after the game, Fairley allegedly texted a co-conspirator that he had delivered bribe payments to Arnold and his teammates, stating, “I’m gone (sic) swing by [the co-schemer’s] spot later and give him the bread [money].” Fairley is said to have later paid Arnold tens of thousands of dollars for his and his teammates’ services.
After receiving the money, Arnold is accused of continuing to help the fixers recruit other college basketball players up until December 2024. Southern Miss Athletics Director Jeremy McClain has since weighed in on the matter.
“We were made aware this morning of federal charges against a former Southern Miss men’s basketball player as part of a larger, national sports betting investigation,” McClain stated on Thursday. “This news is disappointing to everyone associated with Southern Miss Athletics. Integrity of the game is important to anyone who loves college sports, and the University stands ready to assist in making sure incidents like these are removed from the competitive space in intercollegiate athletics.”
The indictment follows a series of NCAA investigations that led to at least 10 players receiving lifetime bans this year for bets that sometimes involved their own teams and their own performances. And the NCAA has said that at least 30 players have been investigated over gambling allegations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
