The Department of Justice dropped two shocking indictments on Thursday related to alleged gambling schemes involving an NBA coach, player, and the mafia.
More than 30 people were arrested as part of the bust, including Portland Trailblazers head coach and former player Chauncey Billups, current Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Damon Jones, and members of the Bonanno, Genovese, Lucchese, and Gambino crime families.
One indictment involves insider sports betting on NBA games, while the other is related to rigged poker matches that also involved NBA personnel.
The Investigations
As reported on Friday’s AM Update, the details are as stunning as they are scandalous. FBI Director Kash Patel spoke to the scale of the operation in a Thursday press conference, calling it “an illegal gambling… and sports rigging operation” that “spanned the course of years.”
According to Patel, who described the case as “very much ongoing,” the FBI led a coordinated takedown across 11 states to arrest over 30 individuals on charges ranging from wire fraud and money laundering to extortion, robbery, and illegal gambling. There are allegedly tens of millions of dollars in fraud, theft, and robbery damages related to the schemes.
The NBA Cheating Scandal
First, the NBA cheating indictment. There are six defendants involved in what U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella called “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”
Rozier and Jones are accused of passing non-public information – like when specific players would be sitting out future games or when they would pull themselves out early for purported injuries or illnesses – to the other co-defendants. In at least one instance, they apparently got their information by threatening a current player, Porter, because of his pre-existing gambling debts.
As Nocella explained, the defendants used this non-public information to place hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent bets, mostly in the form of prop bets on individual player performance placed through online sports books and also in person at casinos. The defendants then allegedly laundered their illegal winnings in various ways.
Each defendant in case has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Rozier was arrested in Orlando, and his attorney said in a statement that his client “is not a gambler” and “looks forward to winning this fight.”
The Poker Scheme
In the other indictment, authorities allege a multi-year, multi-city operation targeted so-called ‘fish’ (i.e. victims lured in by the chance to play alongside former professional athletes, known as ‘face cards’). Those ‘face cards’ are said to have included Billups and Jones.
According to prosecutors, the victims didn’t know that everyone else at the table, including the dealer, were in on the scheme, fleecing the ‘fish’ out of tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per game. Total profits apparently ran up to $7 million.
Nocella described the scam as a sophisticated cheating operation that used off-the-shelf shuffling machines that were altered to read the cards in the deck, predict which player at the table had the best poker hand, and relay that information to an offsite operator.
That offsite individual then allegedly fed the information – via cell phone – back to a co-conspirator at the table. That person at the table was known as the ‘quarterback,’ and they would would secretly signal the information received to others at the table and together use it to cheat the victims.
Other “cheating technologies” are said to have included poker chip tray analyzers (a.k.a. a poker chip tray that secretly reads cards using a hidden camera), special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read pre-marked cards, and an x-ray table that could read cards face down on the table.
This case involve some 32 defendants and charges include wire fraud conspiracy, operation of an illegal gambling business, money laundering conspiracy, extortion conspiracy, and robbery conspiracy. Billups was arrested in Portland, Oregon, and charged with money laundering and a wire fraud conspiracy.
The Organized Crime Component
And then there is the mafia element. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the alleged poker scheme included capos and multiple soldiers from the Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese, and Genovese crime families.
She cited one victim in particular who lost $1.8 million, but she said losses exceeded $7 million. When people refused to pay, Tisch alleged the defendants did what organized crime has always done” and “used threats… intimidation, and… violence.”
What Comes Next
In a statement, the NBA confirmed both Billups and Rozier have been placed on leave from their respective teams. According to court filings, prosecutors are not seeking to hold Billups, Rozier, or Jones in custody while they await trial. They all face charges that carry up to 20 years in prison.
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