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Indictments naming players, others expected on Friday

Posted: Fri December 5, 1997 at 10:05 AM ET

ATLANTA (CNN/SI) -- Sources close to the federal probe of alleged point-shaving involving the Arizona State men's basketball team of 1993-94 tell CNN/SI that former Sun Devil starters Stevin "Hedake" Smith and Isaac Burton have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with investigators.

Friday's editions of the Arizona Republic, citing unidentified sources, corroborate Thursday CNN/SI reports that Smith and Isaac Burton have pleaded guilty, adding the specific charges of conspiracy to commit sports bribery.

Smith reportedly took part in the point-shaving scheme in order to erase a $10,000 gambling debt, according to the Republic.

The sources tell CNN/SI that charges are expected to be filed against four other men involved in the alleged scheme to shave points in as many as four ASU games in '94.

And according to the Arizona Republic, indictments naming Smith, Burton, gambler Joseph Gagliano Jr. and bookmaker Benny Silman will be announced Friday.

The Republic also reported that two alleged Chicago bookmakers, Joseph Mangiamele and his father, Dominic Mangiamele, will be cited in the same indictment on money laundering and illegal sports betting charges.

Sometime during the 1993-94 season, CNN/SI sources say, a scheme was hatched in an off-campus apartment building where Smith lived. According to Sports Illustrated sources, Smith and Burton agreed to fix a number of Sun Devils games for a group of gamb lers.

Sports Illustrated sources said the scheme was orchestrated by Gagliano, a Phoenix man who has described himself as a brokerage manager and investment planner, and was carried out with the help of a member of a campus gambling ring.

When Gagliano proposed the scheme to Smith, Sports Illustrated reported in its December 1 issue, Smith offered to participate if he and two teammates who were to help in the point shaving were paid $100,000 each for each game they shaved. Smith accepte d Gagliano's counteroffer of less than half that sum, according to the Sports Illustrated sources.

Gagliano is said to have won more than $1 million betting against the Sun Devils, according to The Associated Press. Gagliano and Silman, a former concessionaire at America West Arena, were among those named on 27 subpoenas issued in July for employee s of Las Vegas casinos who were directly involved in betting activities during the 1993-94 season, according to previous reports.

Gagliano declined comment to Sports Illustrated.

Smith, who previously has denied any wrongdoing, told friends after FBI sessions that "everything is fine," according to the Tribune, a Mesa-based newspaper that serves suburban Phoenix.

Since then, Smith has returned to France, where he's been playing professionally, and couldn't be reached for comment, the newspaper said.

Burton's representative, Ed Whatley, told Sports Illustrated last week that Burton, now playing professionally in Australia, is cooperating with authorities.

Sports Illustrated and others have said that Smith, Arizona State's second-leading scorer, and Burton accepted money to shave points in 1993-94 home games against Oregon State, Oregon and Southern California.

There also are questions surrounding the game of March 5, 1994, against Washington in Seattle. CNN/SI reported last month on the suspicious betting activities in Las Vegas of a group of mystery men surrounding that game.

"Three of them were fairly young kids, almost like college kids, and the fourth was an older gentleman, and they would just trade off betting," said Nick Bogdanovich, the Horseshoe Casino Sports Book director. "One would bet and then the next one would bet and then you'd see them walking to the exits to go across the street to bet."

A typical ASU game will attract $50,000 in legal bookmaking activity. On that Saturday, that figure swelled to the hundreds of thousands, an almost unheard-of occurrence when there isn't an injury to a major player.

"I went and made a big, big bet, minus the 5, and I played all around town," professional sports gambler Lem Banker said. "Then I realized I'm smelling a rat. There's something wrong with the game."

Oddsmakers and bettors watched the scene on the strip unfold with alarm and fascination.

"What these gentlemen were doing was betting the game like they had inside information," Bogdanovich said. "The way they were betting tipped me off that they probably had a few players."

Barry Lieberman was a federal prosecutor for the Justice Department and an assistant U.S. Attorney in Nevada and currently is general counsel for three Vegas casinos.

"In my mind," said Lieberman, "I'm fairly certain those games were intended to be fixed in some way; that someone had advance knowledge that Arizona State would not cover the point spread and were betting indiscriminately on Washington.

"That day rumors started to spread of college-age-type students coming in and betting large amounts of money on Washington. People t he sports books had never seen before," Lieberman said. "And that prompted quite a bit of interest. And I believe the sports book managers started calling one another to find out if they knew who it was who was betti ng on Washington."

The betting was so suspicious that some books stopped taking bets on the game altogether.

"We did take the game down or stop wagering on that particular event after the point spread had moved a significant amount," Manteris said.

The amount of money bet on the game prompted someone from Las Vegas to call the Pac-10's offices in Walnut Creek, California.

"At 10:36 I received a call from a sports bookie who indicated there was some unusual betting activity on the ASU-Washington game, which was scheduled to take place later that afternoon," said Pac-10 associate commissioner David Price. "After I got off the phone with him, I contacted the athletic director at Arizona State, who at that time was Charles Harris."

After ASU was tipped off, the game tipped off, but not in the Sun Devils' favor. ASU missed its first 14 shots against an inferior Washington team, and by halftime looked like a team that needed a good talking to.

"There's a very strong feeling in light of the previous pattern -- that Arizona State had lost where there was unusual betting -- that in this game someone talked to them at halftime and advised them that there was a problem," Lieber man said, "and they went out and played the way they were supposed to play in the second half and ended up covering the point spread."

Said Price: "At the time, the report was that a Pac-10 official went into the locker room at halftime. To the best of our knowledge, that is not true."

No one from Arizona State has confirmed that such a conversation took place, either. FBI agents questioned Price a few months later, but the probe ended soon after, with many questions left unanswered.

Then-coach Bill Frieder, who resigned September 10 after eight seasons at Arizona State, said he reviewed a tape of the game against Washington and did not find anything conclusive.

"That was the only game that I reviewed excessively, because it was the only game we heard about at that time," Frieder said last week. "But I never had a feeling that something wasn't right."