When you utter the name Bernie Madoff to any number of investors, you might as well be cussing directly at them.
Madoff has costed unlimited numbers both in the private and public sector–as well as in professional sports–their financial security due to his elaborately constructed Ponzi schemes that bilked people out of billions of dollars.
Salinas was found dead Sunday morning in his Friendswood, Texas home just days after the onset of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into his business dealings with several collegiate coaches. A former University of Houston and Rice University booster, Salinas founded and managed the highly successful Houston Select AAU basketball program with his spare time away from his investment business.
Rumors have spread that Salinas had investment ties to several Division I basketball coaches including Texas Tech’s Billy Gillispie, Baylor’s Scott Drew and legendary former Arizona head coach Lute Olson, each of whom he reportedly bilked out of millions of dollars using Ponzi schemes similar to those perpetrated by Bernie Madoff.
What has yet to be determined by the SEC is whether Salinas ran these schemes outside of the operations of Houston Select, or if in fact the AAU organization was a cover for his illegal activities.
At a minimum, it is reasonable to assume that Salinas could have directed some of his most talented players from Houston Select to certain schools in return for the investment business of those schools’ head coaches. If this turns out to be true, these coaches–and the schools where they were coaching at the time of their dealings with Salinas–will certainly face consequences from the NCAA.
If, in fact, Salinas’ relationships with coaches were on a smaller scale it is possible that no illegal activity actually took place in terms of recruiting violations or NCAA bylaw violations, and Salinas was just a crooked investor.
The SEC investigation in coming months will bring the facts to light in what appears to be yet another case of a booster using their clout for personal gain at others’ expense. If these occurrences were rare or out-of-the-ordinary this case might be more shocking than it actually is.
Street agents and brokers are firmly entrenched in the shady underground of collegiate recruiting and will not be going anywhere anytime soon.
Guys like Willie Lyles and David Salinas are everywhere, some just slip up, cost people their reputations and manage to ruin their own lives in the process.
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