Southern Miss Point Guard Mo Arnold (3) keeps the ball inbounds against a NW State defender during the second half of an NCAA College Basketball game Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023 in Hattiesburg, Miss. (Hunter Dawkins/The Gazebo Gazette via AP)

by Hunter Dawkins, Owner/Publisher – editor@thegazebogazette.com or hdawkins@supertalk.fm

HATTIESBURG (GG) — An indictment released 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 Picayune native Southern Miss point guard Mo Arnold is among those charged, while two of his teammates were allegedly involved. The other players have not been identified at this time.

The scheme revolved around fixers – who arrange certain outcomes in sports to guarantee illegal gambling revenue – recruiting players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for those players purposefully underperforming during a game, the federal prosecutors expressed in the litigation. The fixers placed big bets against those players’ teams in those games, defrauding sports-books 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 in February 2024 with teammates.  The three players were 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.

On February 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.  Those gambling under the guidance of Fairley and fellow accused fixer Shane Hennen, placed around $275,000 on South Alabama to cover the first-half spread. Additionally, Hennen and Fairley have been indicted in a betting scheme involving NBA games.

While Arnold did not score in the first half, meaning Southern Miss had beaten the spread, costing money.  According to the indictment, Arnold agreed to make up for the losses the gamblers had by agreeing to fix another Golden Eagle game.

Arnold 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.

The gambler 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. Notably, Austin Crowley, the Golden Eagles’ leading scorer during the 2023-24 campaign, did not play.  Fairley is said to have later paid Arnold tens of thousands of dollars for his and his teammates’ services.

(Front Photo by Aimee Cronan/The Gazebo Gazette via Associated Press)