Lawyers say Blake accepted ‘gifts’ from sports agent
Lawyers say Blake accepted ‘gifts’ from sports activities agent
Posted on October 5th, 2010 admin No comments
Lawyers for former North Carolina associate head coach John Blake said Monday that agent Gary Wichard supplied “gifts” to Blake to pay for Blake’s son’s private college tuition though Blake was coaching at North Carolina.
William Beaver, Blake’s Orlando-based lawyer, explained inside a teleconference call with reporters that Wichard gave Blake money for that tuition once in 2008 and twice far more in 2009. Beaver stated Wichard is the godfather of Blake’s son. The legal professionals didn’t say how a lot Wichard gave Blake.
Beaver also confirmed that whilst coaching at North Carolina, Blake received a $45,000 bank loan from the exact same financial institution Wichard uses in New York. Beaver and Wade Smith, Blake’s Raleigh-based lawyer, said they didn’t know why Blake got the loan from Wichard’s financial institution instead of from somewhere closer to residence.
On Thursday, Beaver had claimed the final funds Wichard provided to Blake was “if not over three many years ago, proper around three years ago.” On Monday, Beaver said he was hurried last week and didn’t have a chance to adequately review the records before a teleconference call with reporters Thursday.
North Carolina announced Blake’s hiring in December 2006, 3 years and nine months ago.
Blake’s legal professionals also confirmed that Blake has spoken to Alabama defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, but did not verify reports that Blake encouraged Dareus to indicator with Wichard. The NCAA suspended Dareus for the initial two games from the season for receiving impermissible benefits.
Beaver mentioned Blake “has testified that he has not functioned inside a manner that in his mind has attempted to funnel, push, direct any athlete toward Gary Wichard.”
On Monday, North Carolina head football coach Butch Davis stated he was sorry he trusted Blake and would have fired him if he had known about his financial ties to Wichard.
“I’m sorry that it has affected the football program,” Davis stated at his weekly news conference. “But I’m going to tell you what I’m far more sorry about, I’m sorry that I trusted John Blake.”
When UNC discovered out
Blake resigned Sept. 5 and was paid a $74,500 buyout. North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour mentioned final week inside a statement that the college initial learned that Blake had accepted money from Wichard during an NCAA interview with Blake on Aug. 31.
Baddour mentioned Monday that, judging by NCAA interviews with Blake, he doesn’t know whether the exchanges of funds between Wichard and Blake violated an NCAA rule.
Wichard is scheduled to be interviewed this week by investigators for that N.C. Secretary of State’s Office in their probe of feasible violations with the Uniform Athlete Agent Act. The law requires agents to register to recruit athletes with college eligibility and bans gifts or promises of anything of value to athletes prior to they indicator. Howard Silber, Wichard’s lawyer, said his client is cooperating fully. Silber declined to discuss the exchanges of funds with Blake in detail, but stated Wichard has nothing to hide. “The payments are absolutely unrelated to John’s employment as a coach in North Carolina or anywhere else,” Silber claimed, “and of course absolutely unrelated to any referral of players.”
Did Blake plug Wichard?
Citing unnamed sources, Yahoo! Sports activities and ESPN.com reported that Dareus instructed NCAA investigators that Blake talked to him on the phone and encouraged him to consider signing with Wichard.
Blake got to know Dareus as a high college student in Birmingham, Ala., and Blake tried to recruit him to North Carolina. Beaver confirmed reports that at Alabama, Dareus has spoken with Blake, and that Dareus told Blake of his mother’s illness and that Dareus was being besieged by agents.
Beaver didn’t confirm for reporters that Blake spoke to Dareus about Wichard. “It was not a recruiting call,” Beaver mentioned.
Alabama head soccer coach Nick Saban claimed Monday that he didn’t know about any connection between Blake and Dareus.
Yahoo! report disputed
Yahoo! Sports also reported that Dareus told NCAA investigators that Blake called then-South Carolina tight end Weslye Saunders to suggest he sign with Wichard. Saunders, from Durham, has been dismissed from the South Carolina team.
His father, Barry Saunders, a metro columnist for the News & Observer, declined to comment for this story. But Wade Smith, one of Blake’s legal professionals, questioned the information on Saunders.
“We believe we can say on excellent authority that Weslye Saunders has not been connected with John since he was a high school player,” Smith explained.
Last week, Blake’s attorneys confirmed that Blake has received income from Wichard, calling the exchanges “loans.” They also claimed Blake had a credit card from Pro Tect Management, Wichard’s company, which has since been closed. Beaver mentioned Monday that the card had a $5,000 limit and was used to purchase items such as T-shirts for a camp Blake ran when he was out of coaching.
Financial troubles
The legal professionals said Blake encountered financial difficulties after he was fired as head coach at Oklahoma in 1998. About the same time, the construction of a large, expensive house for him was completed.
They explained the house did not sell for 16 months, and stated payments on the house plus rent that was due in California caused Blake to turn to Wichard, his friend for 27 years now, for financial help.
Nonetheless, Blake has maintained an expensive lifestyle in North Carolina. Tax records show he purchased a house in Durham for $533,500 on June 25, 2008.
On Dec. 31, 2008, Blake paid taxes on a 2007 Mercedes valued at $68,920. His attorneys mentioned they didn’t know why Blake would need gifts to pay for private school for his son throughout the exact same period, but speculated that Wichard might have given the dollars out of desire to do something for his godson.
“As we’ve consistently explained, [Blake and Wichard] are extremely close,” Beaver mentioned. “It’s more like brothers. It’s a well-developed, very close relationship over almost 30 years.”
Staff writers J.P. Giglio and Robbi Pickeral contributed to this story.
