Former Indiana University basketball player Todd Leary was arrested Thursday in Hamilton County on multiple felony charges of theft and fraud and remained in jail Friday, according to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.
Leary, who played for IU from 1989 to 1994, was arrested by Carmel Police Department on one count each of theft and fraud of amounts less than $50,000, both of which are Level 6 felonies, according to online jail records. Leary’s bond is set at $25,000.
Online court records indicate Leary faces as many as 10 felony counts, some dating back to September 2024.
Level 6 felonies are punishable by up to two and a half years in the Indiana Department of Correction.
A probable cause affidavit obtained by Fox59 and shared with IBJ details the allegations, in which the victim accused Leary of charging for basketball lessons that were not provided and failing to return the money.
According to the affidavit, dated Sept. 18, Carmel police received a report in May of this year from a man who said he contacted Leary in January 2024 after hearing him advertise basketball training services via his company Basketball Training & Fitness LLC.
The man said he paid Leary $3,000 for training for his son during the period of February through December 2024. However, after a few sessions, the man said Leary approached him with a “lifetime” training deal for $5,000, promising to train the man’s son three to four times per month through high school to prepare him for college basketball.
In August 2024, Leary then proposed creating an amateur team under Indiana Elite rather than find an existing area team for the son to join. Leary said he would serve as coach and the team would practice twice a week and compete in at least eight tournaments. The father then paid Leary an additional $5,000 to create the team. The following month, Leary requested an additional $5,000 for coaching fees, then $4,000 for a gym fee, then $6,000 to move the team from Indiana Elite to Indiana Basketball League (promising to refund the original $5,000). The man paid him each time, as requested, according to court records.
Then, in October 2024, Leary asked the man for $5,000 to help pay attorney fees due to some recent legal troubles his own son had experienced, according to court records, promising to pay it back with his first check. Leary said he had just been hired by Purdue University’s men’s basketball team as an athletic trainer. The man again wrote Leary a check.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Leary again approached the man for money—and the man wrote him checks—in October, November and December 2024 and January and February 2025, citing reasons from team registration fees to a flight to Florida to see his father, whom he said was receiving intensive care.
A representative for Indiana Elite told police Leary had not established a team with the company, nor had he paid for a team to be created. Representatives for the gym told police Leary had inquired about using the space, but never followed up. A representative for Indiana Basketball League told police he, too, had a brief conversation with Leary about creating a team but that Leary never followed up.
Further, a representative for Purdue told police Leary had never been hired to work for the basketball team.
In March 2025, Leary told the man the team was not going to work out, promising to repay the money he had invested by May 1. “I keep screwing up everything I try to do,” Leary wrote, according to court documents. “I’m going to give you all $50,000 back … I’ll get the remaining 30k back by giving you 5k per month for 6 months.”
However, according to court records, Leary did not repay the man’s investment by May 1 and has since stopped responding to calls and texts.
In total, the man paid Leary $48,900 via check from January 2024 to February 2025, according to court documents, including $11,300 in personal loans that Leary said he would pay back and has not. Leary provided nine coaching sessions.
This is not the first time the former IU basketball guard has run afoul of the law.
Leary pleaded guilty of misappropriation of title insurance escrow funds in Allen County in October 2010 and was sentenced to two years of home detention and two years of probation. In 2012, he pleaded guilty to one count of theft in Hamilton County and was sentenced to one year of home detention and another two years of probation.
According to the probable cause affidavit in Hamilton County, Leary still faces an outstanding judgment of $294,963.37 in the Allen County case.
Leary’s initial hearing on the new charges was Friday afternoon. A jury trial has been set for Jan. 15, 2026.