The Louisville men’s basketball program has been hit with a few scandals in recent years, and while the latest is not on the level of some of the past allegations it’s faced, a former assistant coach is now facing extortion charges. According to information released by the acting U.S. Attorney for the District Court of Western Kentucky, ex-assistant Dino Gaudio attempted to extort 17 months worth of salary from the program by threatening to reveal low-level recruiting violations to the media.
Specifically, Gaudio threatened to reveal that Louisville made recruiting videos for players they hoped would join the program, and in a text, he sent one of the videos to people at the university. This came after the program had already decided to part ways with Gaudio once his contract was up at the end of this past April.
“As detailed in the charging document, after Gaudio was informed that his contract would not be renewed, he threatened to inform members of the media of alleged NCAA violations within the men’s basketball program unless he was paid a significant sum of money,” Louisville said in a statement. “The allegations of violations are the impermissible production of recruiting videos for prospective student-athletes and the impermissible use of graduate managers in practices and workouts. While the University cannot comment further due to the ongoing federal investigation and the NCAA process, it continue to cooperate with authorities as well as with the NCAA on the matter.”
In a separate statement, Louisville coach Chris Mack said that “The University and I were the victims of Coach Gaudio’s conduct and I will continue to fully cooperate with authorities in their investigations. We take seriously any allegation of NCAA violations within our basketball program and will work within the NCAA processes to fully review the allegations.”
Gaudio’s lawyer has said he will not fight the charges, noting that he was caught on tape.
NEW: Just talked to Dino Gaudio's attorney, Brian Butler. Gaudio is not going to fight the allegations.
"He lost his temper and said some things he regrets. Unfortunately those things were taped." @WDRBNews pic.twitter.com/cGj3VHdNY1
— Travis Ragsdale (@TravisRagsdale) May 18, 2021
