FBI Arrests NBA Players, Coaches in Sports Gambling Probes (2)

Basketball player Terry Rozier told a friend in 2023 that he planned to take himself out of a game early with a minor injury. The friend, Deniro Laster, used the tip to place more than $200,000 in bets predicting Rozier would fall short of his usual point total.

By the next morning, prosecutors say, the two men were counting their winnings together in Rozier’s home. The Charlotte Hornets guard at the time played just nine minutes against the New Orleans Pelicans and checked out.

That incident, described in a federal indictment unsealed on Thursday in Brooklyn, now sits at the center of one of the most sweeping sports gambling cases ever brought by the US Justice Department — one that stretches from locker rooms to underground poker clubs controlled by New York’s biggest mafia families.

Rozier, now with the Miami Heat, and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups were arrested Thursday morning and charged as part of two separate criminal schemes related to illegal sports betting, federal prosecutors said.

Soon after the arrests, Rozier and Billups were placed on immediate leave from their teams.

FBI Director Kash Patel and Brooklyn federal prosecutors said at least 30 people were arrested across 11 states, including current and former National Basketball Association players and coaches.

“The fraud is mind-boggling,” Patel said at a press conference in New York Thursday. “We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation.”

Prosecutors say Rozier relied on insider information from NBA locker rooms. Billups is charged in a separate case involving rigged poker games backed by organized crime. The two indictments were announced together but describe distinct criminal enterprises.

The sports-betting indictment involved six defendants with a fraud scheme to bet on nonpublic information about NBA athletes and teams, according to prosecutors. The nonpublic information included when specific players would be sitting out future games or when they would pull themselves out early for purported injuries or illnesses, authorities said. They relied on individuals, including Rozier and former NBA player Damon Jones.

Defendants allegedly misused information obtained through long standing friendships that they had with NBA players and coaches, prosecutors said. In at least one instance, they described how Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter was threatened for information because of his pre-existing gambling debts.

Head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers Chauncey Billups

Photographer: Soobum Im/Getty Images

Jones, a key intermediary, shared undisclosed medical information about Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, identified in the indictment as “Player 4,” one of the team’s top players during the 2023–24 season.

“This is the insider trading saga for the NBA,” Patel said. “That’s what this is.”

A representative for the Miami Heat declined to comment and one for the Trail Blazers didn’t immediately respond to calls and emails seeking comment.

“We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today,” an NBA spokesperson said in a statement. “We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”

The NBA said in January that it had reviewed betting activity involving Rozier’s March 2023 game and found no violation of league rules after an internal review. The NBA has cooperated with the investigation, prosecutors said.

Eric Olson, a lawyer for Porter, didn’t immediately return a voicemail seeking comment about Porter. James Trusty, a lawyer for Rozier, didn’t return an email and voicemail seeking comment. Contact information for lawyers for Jones and Billups were not immediately available.

Prosecutors said Jones was the link between the NBA insider scheme and a separate criminal enterprise involving rigged high-stakes poker games.

The second indictment, charging 31 people nationwide, describes poker games in Manhattan, the Hamptons, Miami and Las Vegas that used hidden technology to ensure the outcome. The group modified DeckMate 2 shuffling machines and used x-ray tables and concealed cameras to read cards in real time. The data was transmitted to an off-site “driver,” who relayed it back to a player at the table dubbed the “Quarterback” — who signaled others when to bet or fold.

Messages recovered from iCloud accounts show the conspirators discussing how to lose on purpose to avoid suspicion. In one exchange, a participant warned that Billups and another player had “hit two gunshots on the river” — poker slang for improbable wins — and suggested they “lose one to cool it down.” Another thread listed the hand signals to be used in a Miami game: a tap on the table for one player’s advantage, a touch on the chin for another.

“What the victims — the fish — didn’t know is that everybody else at the poker game, from the dealer to the players, including the face cards, were in on the scam,” said Joseph Nocella, Jr. the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

According to prosecutors, the poker network was financed and protected by the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese and Colombo crime families, each taking a share of the profits. The Bonannos controlled a Manhattan game on Lexington Avenue; the Gambinos backed another on Washington Place. When the two operations merged, the families agreed to split the proceeds.

“Bringing four of the five families together in a single indictment is extraordinarily rare,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. “It tells you how much money was on the table.”

Miami Heat player Terry Rozier

Photographer: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Brooklyn federal prosecutors brought a related case against Porter, the former Raptors forward, which they have described as the first sign of a broader pattern of betting-related manipulation in the league.

Porter was banned for life after the NBA found he conspired to influence wagers by deliberately removing himself from games so others could profit from “under” bets on his performance. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges, telling the court he acted to pay off gambling debts, and is scheduled to be sentenced in December.

(Updates with details from the indictment throughout.)

--With assistance from Ira Boudway and Giles Turner.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Myles Miller in New York at mmiller899@bloomberg.net;
Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net

Steve Stroth, Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou

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