Gallon maintains that Hausinger money went to Oak Hill
Published: 5/27/2010 9:26 PM
Last Modified: 5/27/2010 9:26 PM
For the second time in a week, Tiny Gallon has alleged the $3,000 he received from financial adviser Jeffrey Hausinger was used to pay money he owed his Virginia prep school, Oak Hill Academy.
"Oak Hill wouldn't release my transcript under no circumstances," Gallon told East Coast-based basketball writer/blogger Adam Zagoria after working out for the New York Knicks Thursday, "and my mother had to do what she had to do."
Hausinger reportedly wired a $3,000 transfer from his Tampa Merrill Lynch firm into a bank account held by Gallon and his mother, Sylvia Wright, last August.
"She got the money from him, got my transcript out of Oak Hill Academy," said Gallon, who gave a similar explanation to the Kansas City Star last week while at a pre-NBA draft camp in Chicago. "When she got the money, she paid the financial adviser back through my freshman year."
"We did receive payment from a family member toward his student account," Oak Hill president Dr. Michael Groves told Zagoria. "I wouldn't have any information about the origin of the funding."
The NCAA, part of a joint investigation with Oklahoma on the matter, is interested in finding out, apparently. Interested enough to send officials to Oak Hill "a couple weeks ago," Groves told Zagoria.
Now, here's where things get murky.
Gallon told Zagoria that Hausinger approached TMZ with the story after he lost his job with Merrill Lynch March 26. According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Hausinger did, in fact, resign from Merrill Lynch March 26.
However, TMZ first reported the story March 18. And in that story was this quote from Hausinger: "I don't think I want to talk to you."
That sounded more like a guy caught red-handed than someone looking to act out a vendetta against the company that forced his resignation.
Then there's the statement attributed to Hausinger in the FINRA document: "The media reports indicated that I gave money to Willie Warren or Keith Gallon are false. I also did not give any money to Sylvia Wright."
Somewhere among Gallon's comments, Hausinger's statements and the 66 cell phone calls/text messages exchanged between Hausinger and former OU assistant Oronde Taliaferro lies the truth.
The closest we got to an undisputable truth in Gallon's interview with Zagoria was his admission that the investigation forced him to turn pro after his freshman season at OU.
"Basically, that was the reason," Gallon said. "We still (hadn't) gotten an answer from the NCAA, so Jeff Capel and my mother talked about it. He was like, 'He might as well come out.
"They (the NCAA) were supposed to get back to me in a week, but it was like two months. So we just came out and that was my decision."
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
