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An NBA player and a head coach are among dozens of individuals apprehended as part of an extensive FBI investigation targeting illicit sports betting operations and rigged poker games with alleged ties to organized crime.
Miami Heat player Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups were named in separate indictments issued by federal prosecutors on Thursday.
Rozier, 31, is among six individuals arrested for alleged betting irregularities, which include accusations that NBA players may have feigned injuries to influence gambling markets.
Billups, a Hall of Fame player who has served as the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers since 2021, is one of 31 individuals charged in a separate case involving illegal poker games allegedly linked to retired players and organized crime.
According to prosecutors, the poker game case involved four of the five major crime families in New York and uncovered an alleged scheme to lure victims into rigged poker games alongside high-profile sports figures before defrauding them of millions of dollars.
Authorities allege the scheme involved sophisticated technology, including special contact lenses and glasses capable of reading pre-marked cards, as well as an X-ray table.
In a statement, the NBA announced that Rozier and Billups have been placed on immediate leave while the league reviews the federal indictments.
“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the statement read.
Rozier’s attorney denied the allegations to CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner, stating: “Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”
FBI Director Kash Patel held a news conference in Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday to announce the indictments, calling the arrests “extraordinary” and noting a “coordinated takedown across 11 states.”
US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Joseph Nocella Jr, stated that all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, but cautioned: “Your winning streak has ended. Your luck has run out.”
Prosecutors stated that the first case involves players and associates who allegedly used insider information to manipulate bets on major gambling platforms.
Nocella described it as “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized.”
Seven NBA games between February 2023 and March 2024 have been identified as part of the case. Rozier is alleged to have been involved in one game between the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans, when he was playing for the Hornets.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated that on 23 March 2023, Rozier allegedly informed individuals close to him of his plan to leave a game early due to a purported injury.
Conspirators allegedly used this information to place bets that yielded tens of thousands of dollars in profits, according to Tisch.
During the game, Rozier played approximately nine minutes and scored only five points, citing a sore right foot in the official NBA match report.
Prior to that game, he averaged 35 minutes of playing time and approximately 21 points per game.
“As the NBA season tips off, his career is already benched, not for injury but for integrity,” Tisch said.
Rozier’s lawyer James Trusty said in a statement that prosecutors “appear to be taking the word of spectacularly in-credible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case.”
Trusty stated that he had been representing Rozier for over a year and that prosecutors had characterized Rozier as a subject, not a target, until informing him that FBI agents were arresting the player on Thursday morning.
Former NBA player Damon Jones was also arrested.
Jones is said to have been involved in two of the identified games – when the Los Angeles Lakers met the Milwaukee Bucks in February 2023, and a January 2024 game between the Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The second case involves 31 defendants alleged to have participated in a scheme to rig illegal poker games and steal millions of dollars, with backing from organized crime families.
The case involved 13 members and associates of the Bonanno, Genovese and Gambino crime families.
Nocella stated that the targeted victims were lured to play in games with former professional athletes, including Billups and Jones, in Las Vegas, Miami, Manhattan, and the Hamptons.
Victims were “fleeced” out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game, he said.
He added that the defendants used “very sophisticated technology,” such as altered off-the-shelf shuffling machines that could read the cards. Some of the defendants used special contact lenses and eyeglasses to read pre-marked cards, and an X-ray table that could read cards when they were face-down.
Tisch stated that when individuals refused to pay, the organized crime families used threats and intimidation to compel them to hand over the money.
The charges include robbery, extortion, wire fraud, bank fraud, and illegal gambling.
The conspiracy cheated victims out of $7m (£5.2m), with one losing $1.8 million, officials said.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” Christopher Raia, the FBI assistant director of the New York field office, said, adding the FBI is working day and night to ensure members of mafia families “cannot continue to wreak havoc in our communities”.
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