College basketball players among 26 charged in ‘international criminal’ betting scheme

• Games allegedly fixed as recently as last season

• Bribe payments' said to be up to $30,000

A sprawling betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games has led to charges against 26 people, including more than a dozen college basketball players who tried to fix games as recently as last season, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.

The scheme generally revolved around fixers recruiting players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for those players purposefully underperforming during a game, prosecutors said. The fixers then placed large bets against those players' teams, defrauding sportsbooks and other bettors, according to the indictment unsealed on Thursday.