ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
[MORE: Who are Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier and Damon Jones?<\/a>]<\/p>\n The two indictments unsealed in New York create a massive cloud for the NBA \u2014 which opened its season this week \u2014 and show how certain types of wagers arevulnerable to massive fraud<\/a>in the growing, multibillion-dollarlegal sports-betting industry<\/a>. Joseph Nocella, the top federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York, called it \u201cone of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy message to the defendants who\u2019ve been rounded up today is this: Your winning streak has ended,\u201d Nocella said. \u201cYour luck has run out.\u201d<\/p>\n FILE – This photo combo shows from left, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups. (AP Photo\/File)<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fraud is mind boggling,\u201d FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 in career earnings over his 17-year career. Rozier made about $160 million in his stops in Boston, Miami and Charlotte.<\/p>\n Billups and Rozier have been placed on leave from their teams, according to the NBA, which said it is cooperating with authorities.<\/p>\n \u201cWe take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,\u201d the NBA said in a statement.<\/p>\n Hours after his arrest, Rozier appeared in a federal court in Orlando, Florida, wearing a Charlotte Hornets sweatshirt, handcuffs and shackles. Billups appeared before a judge in Portland, Oregon. Both men were ordered released from custody on certain conditions. Billups\u2019 attorney, Chris Heywood, declined to comment after the hearing.<\/p>\n Rozier\u2019s lawyer, Jim Trusty, said in a statement that his client is \u201cnot a gambler\u201d and \u201clooks forward to winning this fight.\u201d Trusty criticized authorities for not allowing his client to surrender on his own and accused officials of wanting \u201cthe misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk.\u201d<\/p>\n Messages were left on Thursday at a phone number and email address listed in public records for Jones.<\/p>\n Mafia families profited off gambling scheme, officials say<\/p>\n The poker scheme lured unwitting players 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 cards, authorities allege.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Athletes accused of leaving games early<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n 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 9 minutes and 36 seconds of the game before leaving, citing a foot issue. He did not play again that season.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cshady\u201d had happened regarding the prop bets involving his stats for that night.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n