The head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and a player for the Miami Heat were arrested Thursday along with more than 30 other people in two cases alleging sprawling criminal schemes to rake in millions by rigging sports bets and poker games involving Mafia families, authorities said.
Portland coach Chauncey Billups was charged with participating in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games in Las Vegas, Miami, Manhattan and the Hamptons that were backed by La Cosa Nostra organized crime families. Heat guard Terry Rozier is accused in a separate scheme to concoct fraudulent bets by exploiting insider information about NBA athletes.
The indictments unsealed in New York create a massive cloud for the NBA, which opened its season this week, and show how certain types of wagers are vulnerable to massive fraud in the growing, multi-billion-dollar legal sports-betting industry. Joseph Nocella, the top federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York, called it "one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States."
"My message to the defendants who've been rounded up today is this: Your winning streak has ended," Nocella said. "Your luck has run out."
Both men face money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy charges and were expected to make initial court appearances later Thursday. Also charged is former NBA assistant coach and player Damon Jones, who is accused of participating in both schemes.
"The fraud is mind boggling," FBI director Kash Patel told reporters. "We're talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation."
The alleged fraud, however, paled in comparison to the riches the athletes earned on the court. Billups, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year, had about $106 million US in career earnings over his 17-year career. Rozier made about $160 million in his stops in Boston, Miami and Charlotte.
WATCH | FBI official lays out details of alleged illegal sports betting:Christopher Raia, assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York field office, spoke Thursday after law enforcement arrested 34 people for alleged involvement in what he described as 'two separate illegal poker and sports betting schemes’ with ties to Mafia crime families.Billups and Rozier have been placed on leave from their teams, according to the NBA, which said it is cooperating with authorities.
"We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority," the NBA said in a statement.
Rozier's lawyer, Jim Trusty, said in a statement his client is "not a gambler" and "looks forward to winning this fight." Trusty criticized authorities for not allowing his client to surrender on his own and accused officials of wanting "the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk."
Trusty described what he said was "chicanery" of prosecutors and federal agents. The defence attorney said he got a predawn call saying that federal agents were downstairs at Rozier's hotel in downtown Orlando and that the attorney should call his client to tell him to go downstairs.
Within minutes, federal agents were at the door to Rozier's hotel room, Trusty told the judge.
"It has had a damaging effect on his career," Trusty said.
Another condition of Rozier's release is he can have no contact with any others named in the indictment, as well as any listed individuals the government provides.
A federal magistrate judge said Thursday Rozier could be released from custody by putting up his Florida home as bond and surrendering his passport. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Norway also restricted Rozier's travel to the continental United States and prohibited him from gambling as conditions for his release.
Federal prosecutors had asked for a $10 million bond but Rozier's attorney said that was excessive given that the NBA star had no prior record.
Messages were left Thursday at a phone number and email address listed in public records for Jones.
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, right, and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier are charged in connection with schemes involving illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the Mafia. (The Associated Press)Roughly 20 other defendants appeared in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., where most of them pleaded not guilty. Many of those charged with violent crimes or with lengthy criminal records and ties to organized crime were detained.
The poker scheme cheated at least $7 million out of unsuspecting gamblers who were lured into rigged games with the chance to compete against former professional basketball players like Billups and Jones. The games were fixed using sophisticated cheating technology, such as altered card-shuffling machines, hidden cameras in poker chip trays, special sunglasses and even X-ray equipment built into the table to read the cards of unsuspecting players, authorities allege.
The scheme often made use of illegal poker games run by New York crime families that required them to share a portion of their proceeds with the Gambino, Genovese and Bonnano crime families, according to court papers. Members of those families, in turn, also helped commit violent acts, including assault, extortion and robbery, to ensure repayment of debts and the continued success of the operation, officials said in court documents.
Prosecutors asked a judge to detain Mafia members implicated in the case, as well as the ringleaders of the poker scheme. Prosecutors are arguing for releasing Billups and Jones but with "substantial bail conditions," including a prohibition on any form of gambling and travel restrictions.
In the sports betting scheme, Rozier and other defendants are accused of accessing private information from NBA players or coaches that could impact a player's performance and giving that information to others so they could place wagers. Players sometimes altered their performance or took themselves out of games early to rig prop bets — a type of wager that allows gamblers to bet on whether a player will exceed a certain statistical number, such as whether the player will finish over or under a certain total of points, rebounds or assists, according to the indictment.
In one instance, Rozier, while playing for the Charlotte Hornets in 2023, told people he was planning to leave the game early with a supposed injury, allowing gamblers to place wagers earning them tens of thousands of dollars, authorities say. That game against the New Orleans Pelicans raised eyebrows at the time. Rozier played the first nine minutes 36 seconds of the game before leaving, citing a foot issue. He did not play again that season.
Posts still online from March 23, 2023, show that some bettors were furious with sportsbooks that evening when it became evident that Rozier was not going to return to the game after the first quarter, with many turning to social media to say that something "shady" had happened regarding the prop bets involving his stats for that night.
The indictments contain the descriptions of several unnamed NBA players whose injury status and availability for certain games were the source of betting activity. Those players are not accused of any wrongdoing, and there is no indication that they would have even known what was being said about their status for those games.
Those players include LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard. Their identities are clear based on a review of corresponding injury reports surrounding games mentioned in the indictment. The indictments show that certain defendants shared information about the availability of those players in a game on March 24, 2023, involving the Portland Trail Blazers, and two games in 2023 and 2024 involving the Los Angeles Lakers.
The NBA had investigated Rozier previously. He was in uniform as the Heat played the Magic on Wednesday in Orlando, Florida, in the season opener for both teams, though he did not play in the game.