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LA Times front page story about an old story that has come back with a vengeance. Back in 09 they suspended RB Joe McKnight for a Bowl game because the Times had seen him driving a Range Rover which they tracked down as not belonging to him. USC investigated and suspended him but then announced he'd filed paperwork with USC in advance disclosing he'd be driving his "friends" vehicle. The NCAA accepted that and cleared him.
There's a huge scandal in LA right now with the Office of the Assessors office, fraud, money laundering etc. ONe of the employees involved was giving huge tax breaks to rich folks in an attempt to get them to help get his boss re-elected, lots of kickbacks involved etc. This guy, Scott Schenter, is the same guy who loaned the vehicle to McKnight.
They now have documents and emails that say he gave McKnight a car(apparently not new), and that he gave nearly 4,000 in cash and gifts to USC basketball player Davon Jefferson. He was also connected to... wait for it... OJ Mayo. He bragged in emails that he was using USC athletes to help market new businesses of his, one of which was some fancy bus with a hot tub used to take people to clubs and VIP events. He said he was going to wrap the bus with pictures of Mayo and Davon and even though USC had told him to stop, he said they can't stop me.
If true USC is probably getting more trouble over this because if they told the guy to stop, they clearly knew he was doing something. But when the NCAA investigated McKnight in 09, USC didn't disclose any of that, it's not in the reports at all.
There's also apparently been a longstanding rumor that nobody could prove that SC faked the paperwork they said McKnight had filed with them about the Range Rover, so that they could say it wasn't a violation.
Schenter comes off a rogue guy in a way who was clearly exploiting some of the dirty athletes USC had at the time. THe problem is its clear USC knew about it and if the NCAA decides they covered that up I could see more sanctions.
There's a huge scandal in LA right now with the Office of the Assessors office, fraud, money laundering etc. ONe of the employees involved was giving huge tax breaks to rich folks in an attempt to get them to help get his boss re-elected, lots of kickbacks involved etc. This guy, Scott Schenter, is the same guy who loaned the vehicle to McKnight.
They now have documents and emails that say he gave McKnight a car(apparently not new), and that he gave nearly 4,000 in cash and gifts to USC basketball player Davon Jefferson. He was also connected to... wait for it... OJ Mayo. He bragged in emails that he was using USC athletes to help market new businesses of his, one of which was some fancy bus with a hot tub used to take people to clubs and VIP events. He said he was going to wrap the bus with pictures of Mayo and Davon and even though USC had told him to stop, he said they can't stop me.
If true USC is probably getting more trouble over this because if they told the guy to stop, they clearly knew he was doing something. But when the NCAA investigated McKnight in 09, USC didn't disclose any of that, it's not in the reports at all.
There's also apparently been a longstanding rumor that nobody could prove that SC faked the paperwork they said McKnight had filed with them about the Range Rover, so that they could say it wasn't a violation.
Schenter comes off a rogue guy in a way who was clearly exploiting some of the dirty athletes USC had at the time. THe problem is its clear USC knew about it and if the NCAA decides they covered that up I could see more sanctions.
