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NBA head coach Chauncey Billups of the Portland Trail Blazers and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were taken into custody on Thursday for allegedly participating in illegal gambling activities, according to US officials.
Billups, a former star with the Detroit Pistons and a Hall of Fame member in the National Basketball Association, was apprehended in relation to rigged illegal poker sessions connected to Mafia crime syndicates, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
Rozier and ex-NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones were among six individuals arrested in connection with a sports betting investigation, Patel announced during a press briefing in New York.
US Attorney Joseph Nocella said that 49-year-old Billups was one of over 30 individuals charged for their alleged involvement in a “nationwide scheme to “rig illegal poker games’ utilising ‘high-tech cheating technology”
Rozier and Jones allegedly “participated in one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States,” Nocella said.
He described it as “an insider sports betting conspiracy that leveraged confidential information regarding National Basketball Association players and teams.”
The accused were implicated in unlawful bets on the performance of players from the Charlotte Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Lakers, and Toronto Raptors, Nocella noted. He mentioned that the NBA has been cooperative with the inquiry that resulted in the charges revealed on Thursday.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch cited an example from March 23, 2023, when Rozier was still playing for the Hornets.
Rozier let co-conspirators “know that he planned to leave the game early with a supposed injury,” Tisch said.
“Using that information, members of the group placed more than $200,000 in wagers” on his expected performance in the game, she said. “Rozier exited the game after just nine minutes, and those bets paid out, generating tens of thousands of dollars in profit.”
Nocella said that the indictment in the sports wagering case stemmed from the previous arrest of former NBA player Jontay Porter, who was permanently banned from the league for his involvement in a betting scandal.
Porter was accused of making bets connected to his own performance during games. He has pleaded guilty to conspiracy for wire fraud and is awaiting sentencing.
NBA players are prohibited from betting on NBA games according to league regulations.
Billups’s arrest occurred three months following the arrest of former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas, who faced charges in July for conducting illegal high-stakes poker games at his mansion in Los Angeles.
