NC State gets grand jury subpoena for records from NY court
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) A North Carolina State spokesman says the school has received a grand jury subpoena from a New York court seeking records.
Athletics spokesman Fred Demarest confirmed to The Associated Press that the school's office of general counsel received the subpoena from the Southern District of New York on Jan. 17. Demarest added that school's general counsel was told the subpoena was confidential and did not inform the Wolfpack's coaching staff.
It is unclear what records the court is seeking and Demarest declined to elaborate on details of the subpoena, which was first reported Friday by The Washington Post.
It's the same court handling charges that were filed in September in the ongoing federal investigation of corruption in college basketball .
A recent Yahoo Sports report revealed bank records and other expense reports that listed impermissible payments from agents to at least two dozen players or their relatives, including loans of thousands of dollars to former Wolfpack guard Dennis Smith Jr. Smith is currently in his rookie year with the NBA's Dallas Mavericks.
First-year N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts, who did not coach or recruit Smith, had said on Feb. 19 that he had ''no reason to believe at all that we have anything to do'' with the FBI investigation, adding: ''We don't have red flags or any concerns at all.''
''We're fine on our end,'' Keatts said at the time.
Demarest told the AP Friday night that Keatts was unaware of the subpoena when the coach was asked about the case on the weekly Atlantic Coast Conference coaches' teleconference.
''N.C. State's General Counsel was informed by the Southern District Court of New York that the subpoena was confidential and did not inform basketball staff about the request,'' Demarest said in a text message. ''Coach Keatts was not contacted about and did not know of the subpoena when he addressed the issue in February.''
The case is tied to hundreds of thousands of dollars in alleged bribes and kickbacks designed to influence recruits on choosing a school or an agent.
Federal prosecutors announced in September that they had charged 10 men , including assistant coaches at Arizona, Auburn, USC and Oklahoma State along with a top Adidas executive, in the fraud and bribery scandal. Prosecutors have since withdrawn the criminal complaint against one defendant, the rest are all out on bond and all four charged assistant coaches have been fired.
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