Tennessee
AGs sue NCAA over NIL-related recruiting rules with Vols under investigation
The attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on Wednesday, a day after the University of Tennessee’s chancellor ripped the association for investigating the school for potential recruiting violations related to name, image and likeness compensation rules.
The lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Tennessee claims the NCAA is “enforcing rules that unfairly restrict how athletes can commercially use their name, image and likeness at a critical juncture in the recruiting calendar.”
“These anticompetitive restrictions violate the Sherman Act, harm the States and the welfare of their athletes, and should be declared unlawful and enjoined.”
The NCAA already is being challenged in court by a group of state attorneys general challenging the association’s transfer rules, plus it is the defendant in antitrust suits targeting employment status for athletes and billions in television revenue that schools and conferences make off big-time college sports.
On Tuesday, it was revealed the NCAA was investigating Tennessee and a booster-funded NIL collective that works with Volunteers athletes, the Vol Club run by Spyre Sports Group.
Tennessee released a scathing letter Chancellor Donde Plowman wrote to Charlie Baker shortly after school officials met with NCAA representatives to discuss the allegations. She said leaders of collegiate sports owe it to students and their families to act in their best interest with clear rules — and that the NCAA is nowhere close to providing that.
“Instead, 2 1/2 years of vague and contradictory NCAA memos, emails and ‘guidance’ about name, image and likeness (NIL) has created extraordinary chaos that student-athletes and institutions are struggling to navigate,” Plowman wrote. “In short, the NCAA is failing.”
The university’s athletic director and the governor of Tennessee had her back Wednesday morning.
Athletic director Danny White shared the state attorney general’s post of the lawsuit on social media within 20 minutes, writing that he appreciated Jonathan Skrmetti standing up for the rights of athletes.
“At Tennessee, we are always going to work to support our student-athletes’ rights and give them all the tools needed to succeed on and off the field,” White tweeted. “This is what strong leadership looks like!”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee also applauded the University of Tennessee for being “nothing but forthcoming with the NCAA.”
“And I thank Chancellor Donde Plowman for taking a stand on behalf of all universities and student athletes,” Lee said in a statement.
Plowman was cheered by Tennessee fans during a pregame ceremony Tuesday night before the fifth-ranked Volunteers lost in men’s basketball to South Carolina.
Washington
EBay to pay $59M settlement over pill presses sold online
WASHINGTON (AP) — The e-commerce giant eBay will pay $59 million in a settlement with the Justice Department over thousands of pill press machines sold on the platform.
The machines can be used to manufacture counterfeit pills that look just like prescription pills but instead can be laced with substances like fentanyl, a synthetic opioid drug that is largely fueling the deadliest overdose crisis in U.S. history. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sellers of pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment are required to verify buyers’ identities, keep records, and report to the Drug Enforcement Administration to make sure the machines are traceable and not used illegally.
The Justice Department says eBay failed to meet those requirements for thousands of pill presses and pill-filling encapsulating machines, including high-capacity pill presses capable of producing thousands of pills per hour.
The company, which provides a platform for people to make their own online sales, maintained in a settlement agreement that it is not subject to those reporting requirements.
In hundreds of cases, pill-press buyers also bought counterfeit molds or dies that allowed them to make pills mimicking legitimate prescription pills, authorities said. Many people who bought pill presses on eBay have since been charged in illegal counterfeit pills trafficking cases, according to the Justice Department.
“Counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl are a significant contributor to the deadly overdose epidemic,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta.
More than 100,000 deaths were linked to drug overdoses in 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and over than two-thirds of those involved fentanyl or similar synthetic drugs. The crisis at first centered on prescription painkillers that gained more acceptance in the 1990s, and later heroin. Over the past decade, the death toll has reached an all-time high, and the biggest killers have been synthetic opioids such as fentanyl that are in the supply of many street drugs.
The company has agreed to step up its compliance program on sales of pill presses as well as counterfeit molds, stamps and dies, and encapsulating machines, which are used to fill pills.
The company’s failure to follow “basic reporting and record keeping requirements” allowed people to “set up pill factories in their homes and to do so without detection,” said U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Massachusetts
Man sentenced to 30 months for stealing sports camp tuition
BOSTON (AP) — A Florida man convicted of stealing tuition in 2019 from hundreds of families who planned to send their children to sports camps and spending the money on plastic surgery, vacations and gambling was sentenced Tuesday to two and a half years in prison.
Mehdi Belhassan, 53, of Tampa, was found guilty on two counts of wire fraud in October 2023. He was also sentenced Tuesday to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $575,427 and forfeiture of $443,346.
Beginning in the fall of 2018, Belhassan falsely claimed that he would operate his annual MB Sports Camps at a Boston-area college, prosecutors said. Despite the fact that the city told Belhassan he could not have his camp anywhere in Boston because he lacked the appropriate permits, he continued to promote it and collect funds from more than 300 families across the U.S., investigators said.
Belhassan also defrauded a financing company to obtain operating funds for his nonexistent camp using a fraudulent contract with a college that contained the forged signature of an administrator, prosecutors said.
He used the funds to fly to Las Vegas, where he gambled and spent the money on entertainment and hotels, prosecutors said.
AGs sue NCAA over NIL-related recruiting rules with Vols under investigation
The attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on Wednesday, a day after the University of Tennessee’s chancellor ripped the association for investigating the school for potential recruiting violations related to name, image and likeness compensation rules.
The lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Tennessee claims the NCAA is “enforcing rules that unfairly restrict how athletes can commercially use their name, image and likeness at a critical juncture in the recruiting calendar.”
“These anticompetitive restrictions violate the Sherman Act, harm the States and the welfare of their athletes, and should be declared unlawful and enjoined.”
The NCAA already is being challenged in court by a group of state attorneys general challenging the association’s transfer rules, plus it is the defendant in antitrust suits targeting employment status for athletes and billions in television revenue that schools and conferences make off big-time college sports.
On Tuesday, it was revealed the NCAA was investigating Tennessee and a booster-funded NIL collective that works with Volunteers athletes, the Vol Club run by Spyre Sports Group.
Tennessee released a scathing letter Chancellor Donde Plowman wrote to Charlie Baker shortly after school officials met with NCAA representatives to discuss the allegations. She said leaders of collegiate sports owe it to students and their families to act in their best interest with clear rules — and that the NCAA is nowhere close to providing that.
“Instead, 2 1/2 years of vague and contradictory NCAA memos, emails and ‘guidance’ about name, image and likeness (NIL) has created extraordinary chaos that student-athletes and institutions are struggling to navigate,” Plowman wrote. “In short, the NCAA is failing.”
The university’s athletic director and the governor of Tennessee had her back Wednesday morning.
Athletic director Danny White shared the state attorney general’s post of the lawsuit on social media within 20 minutes, writing that he appreciated Jonathan Skrmetti standing up for the rights of athletes.
“At Tennessee, we are always going to work to support our student-athletes’ rights and give them all the tools needed to succeed on and off the field,” White tweeted. “This is what strong leadership looks like!”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee also applauded the University of Tennessee for being “nothing but forthcoming with the NCAA.”
“And I thank Chancellor Donde Plowman for taking a stand on behalf of all universities and student athletes,” Lee said in a statement.
Plowman was cheered by Tennessee fans during a pregame ceremony Tuesday night before the fifth-ranked Volunteers lost in men’s basketball to South Carolina.
Washington
EBay to pay $59M settlement over pill presses sold online
WASHINGTON (AP) — The e-commerce giant eBay will pay $59 million in a settlement with the Justice Department over thousands of pill press machines sold on the platform.
The machines can be used to manufacture counterfeit pills that look just like prescription pills but instead can be laced with substances like fentanyl, a synthetic opioid drug that is largely fueling the deadliest overdose crisis in U.S. history. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sellers of pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment are required to verify buyers’ identities, keep records, and report to the Drug Enforcement Administration to make sure the machines are traceable and not used illegally.
The Justice Department says eBay failed to meet those requirements for thousands of pill presses and pill-filling encapsulating machines, including high-capacity pill presses capable of producing thousands of pills per hour.
The company, which provides a platform for people to make their own online sales, maintained in a settlement agreement that it is not subject to those reporting requirements.
In hundreds of cases, pill-press buyers also bought counterfeit molds or dies that allowed them to make pills mimicking legitimate prescription pills, authorities said. Many people who bought pill presses on eBay have since been charged in illegal counterfeit pills trafficking cases, according to the Justice Department.
“Counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl are a significant contributor to the deadly overdose epidemic,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta.
More than 100,000 deaths were linked to drug overdoses in 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and over than two-thirds of those involved fentanyl or similar synthetic drugs. The crisis at first centered on prescription painkillers that gained more acceptance in the 1990s, and later heroin. Over the past decade, the death toll has reached an all-time high, and the biggest killers have been synthetic opioids such as fentanyl that are in the supply of many street drugs.
The company has agreed to step up its compliance program on sales of pill presses as well as counterfeit molds, stamps and dies, and encapsulating machines, which are used to fill pills.
The company’s failure to follow “basic reporting and record keeping requirements” allowed people to “set up pill factories in their homes and to do so without detection,” said U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Massachusetts
Man sentenced to 30 months for stealing sports camp tuition
BOSTON (AP) — A Florida man convicted of stealing tuition in 2019 from hundreds of families who planned to send their children to sports camps and spending the money on plastic surgery, vacations and gambling was sentenced Tuesday to two and a half years in prison.
Mehdi Belhassan, 53, of Tampa, was found guilty on two counts of wire fraud in October 2023. He was also sentenced Tuesday to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $575,427 and forfeiture of $443,346.
Beginning in the fall of 2018, Belhassan falsely claimed that he would operate his annual MB Sports Camps at a Boston-area college, prosecutors said. Despite the fact that the city told Belhassan he could not have his camp anywhere in Boston because he lacked the appropriate permits, he continued to promote it and collect funds from more than 300 families across the U.S., investigators said.
Belhassan also defrauded a financing company to obtain operating funds for his nonexistent camp using a fraudulent contract with a college that contained the forged signature of an administrator, prosecutors said.
He used the funds to fly to Las Vegas, where he gambled and spent the money on entertainment and hotels, prosecutors said.
