More than 30 people have been charged in connection with two separate but related federal gambling investigations that involve the NBA, America’s top basketball league, and organized crime, US authorities said Thursday.
Those arrested included 49-year-old Chauncey Billups, a member of the league’s Hall of Fame and head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, as well as 31-year-old Terry Rozier, who plays for the Miami Heat.
What else do we know about gambling investigations?
According to FBI Director Kash Patel, these schemes involved wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, and illegal profits from gambling amounting to millions of dollars.
He said one investigation involved insider sports betting, while the other involved rigging of poker games across the United States.
“The fraud is mind-boggling,” Patel said. “We’re talking about millions of dollars in fraud, theft and robbery in a multi-year investigation.”
Patel said the fraud was supported by La Cosa Nostra crime families.
Authorities said Rozier was one of a number of NBA insiders who provided non-public information about his performance to criminal partners, who then used the information they provided to other bettors to make profits based on the tips they received.
According to authorities, in one case that occurred in March 2023, Rozier told his contacts that he would leave a game early, possibly due to injury, which resulted in them betting on the player not reaching his expected statistics.
Suspicious poker game at center of second investigation
The second investigation involving Billups revolved around rigging of poker games in which players were promised they would play against celebrities. State-of-the-art technology was used, including fraudulent card shufflers and X-ray tables.
According to Brooklyn US Attorney Joseph Nocella, some defendants were charged in both cases, including former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones.
Prosecutors said several New York-based crime families were involved.
While the NBA, Heat and Blazers did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Rozier’s attorney James Trusty accused officials of “taking on a world of spectacularly unreliable sources rather than relying on evidence”, and said his client had been cleared by the NBA.
“These prosecutors resurrected that non-case,” the trustee said.
Edited by: Sam Dusan Inayatullah