SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Myron Piggie: The Check's
In The Mail. . .--(May 31, 2001)

Yesterday, Myron Piggie, an amateur basketball coach who admitted that he gave money to high school basketball stars, including former UCLA player JaRon Rush, his brother Kareem Rush who attends Missouri, Corey Maggette, and several others,  was sentenced to more than three years in prison and ordered to pay more than $320,000 in restitution.

Piggie was sentenced to 37 months on one felony count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and one year on a misdemeanor count of failure to file income taxes. The sentences are set to run concurrently,  and they are without the possibility of parole. Piggie was also ordered to pay restitution of $256,617 to four universities, including UCLA,  the NCAA itself and to Pembroke Hill High School, the private Kansas City prep school attended by the Rush brothers.

JaRon played for UCLA for two years, was declared ineligible for 18 games, and then came back at the end of the season to fuel UCLA's late season run. He left school early for the NBA draft, but remained undrafted.  He signed on with the LA Stars of the ABA.   Piggie was also ordered to pay $67,662 to the Internal Revenue Service as a penalty for tax evasion.  Those charges arose as a result of Piggie's failure to pay taxes on Nike product which he was given by the shoe company, and which he sold. Under Piggie's plea agreement with prosecutors, 10 other charges against him were dismissed.

If you want to read the entire indictment, we have it posted here.  If we were Pete Dalis, we wouldn't be running to the mailbox looking for Piggie's check any time soon. . . how much will they pay him to make license plates?

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