Former financial manager Marty Blazer, who prompted an FBI investigation into bribery in college basketball that led to sweeping criminal charges and convictions and multiple NCAA investigations, died Monday at his home near Pittsburgh.
Police in Findlay Township wrote in an email that Louis Martin “Marty” Blazer III, 53, died of natural causes but declined to provide further information. Blazer is survived by his wife and three children.
Officials with the Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating Blazer in 2013 on allegations that he defrauded five clients, including professional athletes, out of more than $2 million and used that money to invest in movie and music ventures that fizzled.
During that investigation, Blazer also admitted to paying college athletes at multiple universities to secure them as clients when they turned pro, which is a violation of NCAA rules. According to filings in federal court, Blazer agreed to work with the FBI to dig further into the world of financial advisers, agents, apparel companies and coaches steering athletes to particular schools, firms or brands through bribes.
Blazer’s information, cooperation and testimony in the investigation helped the government secure 10 convictions for crimes related to arranging for and paying bribes to college athletes, their relatives or associates, and coaches. It landed an Adidas executive and two associates in prison, along with convictions of four assistant coaches, two of whom received short prison sentences.
The criminal investigation also prompted a wide-ranging NCAA investigation of about a dozen Division I programs and directly or indirectly led to the firing or discipline of multiple coaches, including LSU’s Will Wade, Arizona’s Sean Miller and Louisville’s Rick Pitino, and sanctions against various schools.
Because of his cooperation in the investigation, and with the support of federal prosecutors and the NCAA, Blazer received a lenient sentence — one year of probation — in February 2020 after having pleaded guilty in September 2017 to a series of charges, including securities fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and making false statements and documents. He also was ordered to pay about $1.56 million in restitution to the clients he defrauded.
Before his death, Blazer spoke with ESPN about plans for his role in the scandal to be made into a movie and his pitch for a podcast series to accompany it. In 2022, Amazon Studios and George Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures acquired the screen rights to Blazer’s book, “Hot Dog Money: Inside the Biggest Scandal in the History of College Sports,” written by Guy Lawson and due out in June.
