Breaking news from ABC 11: Wichard reimbursed Marv’s HS coach for flight to California

UNC Scandal38

Kudos to ABC 11 and Mark Armstrong for his continuing great coverage of the scandal involving UNC football’s program. This latest report really doesn’t sound good for UNC football fans considering the documented relationship between former UNC associate head coach John Blake and sports agent Gary Wichard. The two have been linked by both phone records and financial transactions during Blake’s tenure in Chapel Hill. Now, there appears to be an established link between Wichard and Marvin’s high school football coach as well.

RALEIGH — ABC11 has obtained a copy of a search warrant filed by the North Carolina Secretary of State’s office as it looks into whether North Carolina’s sports agent laws were broken in the recent UNC football scandal…

…The warrant says Austin admitted to having his former high school coach Todd Amis pay for flights to California and that he spoke to Wichard on both trips. Wichard admitted phone calls with Austin starting January of 2009, but said he never gave Austin anything.

Invoices show that Wichard’s company Pro Tect Management LLC paid for changes to one of Austin’s flights. Amis later said he was reimbursed for one flight by Wichard.

Full link here.

Link to search warrant here.

More from Ken Tysiac:

The warrant, addressed to Bank of America, seeks bank records of an account belonging to Wichard. It alleges that Todd Amis, Austin’s former high school assistant coach, paid for Austin to travel to California in March 2009 and July 2009.

According to the warrant, Amis said Wichard paid $1,000 for Austin’s March 2009 flight to California, where he trained at a facility called Pro Active Sports with former teammate Kentwan Balmer.

Amis provided a canceled check from Pro Tect Management – Wichard’s company – dated March 3, 2009 in the amount of $1,000, according to the warrant. The check was signed by Wichard.

For those that need a refresher on the financial ties between Wichard and Blake, then Yahoo’s Charles Robinson has done wonderful work on this story:

• At least six wire transfers from Wichard’s private bank – The First National Bank of Long Island – to Blake.

• A $45,000 personal loan to Blake from The First National Bank of Long Island.

• A Pro Tect Management credit card issued in Blake’s name.

A source familiar with the secretary of state’s probe told Yahoo! Sports that Blake has discussed the existence of the transactions with investigators.

A North Carolina attorney for Blake, Wade Smith, declined to comment on Blake’s testimony for state officials. But Smith said there is no evidence showing Blake steered players to Wichard, and added that his client has been open with investigators.

“John Blake has cooperated fully with the secretary of state in North Carolina,” Smith said. “He has met with representatives of the secretary of state and has been very cooperative with them.”

If the NCAA were to determine that a coach was acting as a “runner” to deliver players to an agent, the coach could be subject to bylaw 10.1, which determines unethical conduct of staff members. That bylaw bars the “receipt of benefits by an institutional staff member for facilitating or arranging a meeting between a student-athlete and an agent, financial advisor, or a representative of an agent or financial advisor.”

UNC Scandal

38 Responses to Breaking news from ABC 11: Wichard reimbursed Marv’s HS coach for flight to California

  1. Wufpacker 03/03/2011 at 12:14 AM #

    ^ He’s only repeating what has been said numerous times by SoS…that the SoS investigation is directed at the agents, not UNC-CHeat. And he is technically correct (though IIRC, Marv was designated a runner so there is at least a bit of an overlap there).

    On the other hand, I certainly hope that the NCAA is paying attention and comparing notes and that any possible leads generated by this will be followed and investigated fully.

    That being said…I’ll believe it when I see it.

  2. OldWuf 03/03/2011 at 12:32 AM #

    The longer it drags on the less likely there will be any significant penalties. It will be sickening to see how little they are punished. On top of that, they will have strengthened their program to the point they will be nearly untouchable.

  3. freshmanin83 03/03/2011 at 2:52 AM #

    The USC scandal dragged on for a while but they faced some sanctions eventually.

  4. wufpup76 03/03/2011 at 3:34 AM #

    “Will they have to vacate their pre-season national championship or will they get to keep that?”

    …

    “The banner in the Dean Dome stays.”

    ^Score!

    I’m also totally putting “This will all be over by Friday.” on t-shirts and selling them. Rad!

  5. kbrown 03/03/2011 at 9:52 AM #

    Just saw on twitter from Adam Schefter that Kentwan Balmer has hired Kennard McGuire as his new representation. I guess it’s hard for your current agent to represent you if he is suspended.

  6. Mike 03/03/2011 at 9:54 AM #

    This is nothing new – we have known about this for quite some time. It still amazes me the level of denial. And it still amazes me that the media and Elaine Marshall are finally catching on.

  7. Wolfy__79 03/03/2011 at 10:48 AM #

    to me, if the hammer is dropped.. the timing would be almost perfect alignment with the unveiling of that gaudy addition to their football field.. the structural design itself looks dated and disfunctional… hopefully it cracks before its finished….

  8. Prowling Woofie 03/03/2011 at 11:21 AM #

    Wolfy,

    Maybe they’ll rename it “Sanction Stadium” ???

  9. runwiththepack 03/03/2011 at 12:01 PM #

    Elaine Marshall was probably reluctant to confront any faction of the privileged ruling class in Chapel Hill. Is she a member? There is a price to pay when messin’ with the UNC junta.

    What else explains the drastically lower level of outrage of this UNC scandal compared to the less extensive Golenbach-inspired scandal at NCSU? Although it was 22 years ago and there were probably different folks in the editorial rooms at the Observers and others, that doesn’t explain everything. Compare this to the much higher Mary Easley outrage at NCSU in the Observers. They had a conniption fit over that.

    Hopefully, the NCAA realizes what a facade UNC has put up all these years, and acts accordingly. But I doubt it. NC seems like a corrupt Latin American country sometimes, and the bastion of the privileged is in Chapel Hill, of course.

    That’s why I will be a little surprised if much comes of this when all is said and done.

  10. whitefang 03/03/2011 at 7:29 PM #

    As long as stuff like this keeps coming out I believe it gets harder and harder for the NCAA, the ACC, and the rest of the media to ignore and for UNC to gloss over.
    Maybe they don’t get sanctioned, but there are actually academic people at UNC as well as alumni are embarrassed by this crap. No matter what happens they have lost some of their luster. Forget what we State alumni are saying. What about Duke, Wake Forest, and UVa people. UNC always claimed that they were in the same “class” academically as those schools. That balloon has been burst.
    They have been revealed for what they are. They have a serious lack of integrity in Chapel Hill, and they can longer claim to be an “Ivy League” school with a great sports program. They are just another Auburn / Alabama without the football championships.

  11. Wolfy__79 03/03/2011 at 8:46 PM #

    i’m all for “sanction stadium”

    with this and hopefully more truths forthcoming, i can see where the nc2a’s would have somewhat a forced hand. i also feel unx has mastered escaping out of the back door while others get shot in the face. maybe in the magnified information age it will be punishable?

    where does the acc come into play with all this? is there or could there be anything done from those leaders?

  12. packalum08 03/03/2011 at 10:34 PM #

    ^Swofford has said (I think during FSU’s academic scandal) that the league will not comment on ongoing investigations. So we won’t see them do anything until the NCAA comes out with their answer. And even then, we may not see the league do anything (I don’t think they did for FSU). Of course, when Swofford was AD at UNC-CHeat, he lobbied with other ADs to punish Clemson above and beyond the NCAA sanctions during the Danny Ford era.

  13. Pack78 03/04/2011 at 8:23 AM #

    ^Didn’t Swoffty also fine FSU for resting soccer players for the ACCT in favor of the coming NCAAs? I don’t remember the rationale used (some bilge about ‘the integrity of the league’). Let’s see if that precedent is followed for unx…

1 2

Leave a Reply