Irish Round Table

Another USC superstar is accused of taking thousands in cash and gifts while at the University. Can’t say we are shocked. A system of corruptness within the University coupled with a lame duck NCAA investigatory body creates a perfect environment for these situations.

Just like his USC counterpart Reggie “The Cheat” Bush, OJ Mayo has been on the take during his entire career at USC. Outside The Lines broke the story today:

• Over the course of roughly three years prior to the start of Mayo’s freshman season at USC, BDA Sports provided Guillory with about $200,000, some of it through an account set up at Citibank. Johnson said Guillory told him details about how the account was set up through an intermediary and how it worked: Each month, Guillory told a BDA official what the anticipated “expenses” would be, and that amount would be put into the account to take care of Guillory and Mayo’s needs. Guillory, Johnson said, had a card to make withdrawals from the account. Johnson said he was sometimes with Guillory when he made those withdrawals, and Johnson provided “Outside the Lines” with a receipt from one $200 withdrawal that he said occurred in his presence.

• BDA helped Guillory purchase an Infiniti QX56 that Guillory drives. California registration records show Guillory’s vehicle came from a dealership co-owned by former USC and NFL player Ronnie Lott, a longtime friend of Duffy, BDA Sports’ chairman and CEO. According to Consumer Guide Automotive, the car was valued at around $50,000 when it was first purchased in 2005.

• Guillory has been giving money to Mayo for years, according to Johnson, who provided Western Union receipts that illustrate how Johnson and Guillory wired hundreds of dollars to friends of Mayo while he was in high school to avoid a paper trail leading to Mayo.

• Hotel receipts and airline itineraries show multiple trips made by Johnson and Guillory. The destinations correspond with where Mayo played in high school and at tournaments around the country.

• Guillory paid for Mayo’s cell phone service, which T-Mobile billed to a nonprofit foundation run by Guillory that, according to California state records, is designed to serve “the educational, health, recreational and social needs of youths and elderly citizens residing in inner-city communities.” Johnson provided “Outside the Lines” with the service agreement for four separate lines on the account, set up on March 13, 2007. Johnson said the phone lines were for Guillory, Mayo, a Mayo relative and Johnson. T-Mobile sent a bill to Guillory’s foundation for $558.56 for the September charges for the four lines. Of that amount, $171.17 was for Mayo’s phone service and another $192.33 was for the phone service of Mayo’s relative, according to the invoice and Johnson.

• In addition to several shopping sprees at the two Men’s Land stores in the Los Angeles area, Johnson said Guillory provided Mayo with a flat-screen television, a hotel room and meals — items all paid for with a credit card that belongs to another nonprofit organization, The National Organization of Sickle Cell Prevention and Awareness Foundation. The organization has never registered as a charitable trust with the California Attorney General’s Office and is unknown in the Los Angeles sickle-cell charitable community.

• Guillory purchased airline tickets for a member of Mayo’s family and another Mayo friend to visit Mayo at USC, said Johnson, who provided “Outside the Lines” with a plane itinerary and a receipt for those trips.

Let me guess? USC had no idea.

Pat Forde of ESPN asks: “Has there ever been a more textbook definition of ‘lack of institutional control’?”

Pat, we’ve been asking that for a long time.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.