The FBI have reserved a nice gift for the NBA for the season's restart. The federal agency thus announced a major catch: the arrest of 34 people as part of an investigation mixing suspicious bets on the league, with confidential information transmitted, or the organisation of poker games linked to the mafia...
Amongst the 34 people arrested, there are therefore Terry Rozier, Chauncey Billups but also Damon Jones.
What exactly are they accused of? According to the FBI, Rozier reportedly told a childhood friend, a certain Deniro Laster, that he was going to withdraw from certain matches by using an injury as a pretext. The latter reportedly then sold this information to bettors, for $100,000, so that they would bet on the point guard's failed performances.
Joint Organized Crime take down of illegal national sports betting ring
Poker and confidential information for Chauncey Billups?
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were reportedly thus bet on the player, who played for the Charlotte Hornets at the time, and Rozier reportedly paid his friend to go recover the money in Philadelphia, then bring back the winnings.
Rozier's lawyer, Jim Trusty, responded in a press release that his client "was not a bettor" and "that he was impatient to be able to win this judicial fight".
For his part, Billups is accused of having lured celebrities for illegal poker games organised by the Italian-origin mafia (by the Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese and Genovese families). The Portland Trail Blazers' coach is accused of having received $50,000 for his role, whilst these games were rigged thanks to "sophisticated technologies", notably shuffling machines capable of reading the game's cards, poker chip trays equipped with hidden cameras, contact lenses and special glasses allowing pre-marked cards to be read, as well as an X-ray table that could read cards placed face down on the table...
Enough to extort over seven million dollars in total, one player having lost 1.8 million dollars alone!
Reading the indictment, and even if he is not directly named in this part, because the investigation simply mentions a certain "Co-Conspirator 8", we can guess that Billups is also accused of having provided information on certain absences during Blazers matches, notably regarding Damian Lillard.
"Believing that Billups committed the acts of which the federal government accuses him amounts to believing that he would have put in jeopardy his Hall of Fame entry, his reputation and his freedom," responded his lawyer. "He would never have endangered all that, even less for a card game. Moreover, Billups has never bet and would never bet on basketball matches. He would never provide confidential information and would not sacrifice his team and the league's trust, because that would tarnish the game to which he has devoted his entire life."
Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier
A message from Donald Trump?
As for Jones, he is accused of having taken advantage of his proximity to LeBron James, at the Cleveland Cavaliers then at the Los Angeles Lakers, where he acted as Darvin Ham's unofficial assistant, to monetise information on the King's injuries, and therefore absences. In order therefore to allow bettors to bet on opponents.
The investigation will now continue but it could take between six and twelve months to deliver its verdict. Difficult to think we could see Billups and Rozier, now suspended, before then.
Other arrests could moreover occur since the accounts that bet both on Jontay Porter and Rozier's poor performances also bet on university players...
But whilst with Kash Patel's nomination to head the FBI, Donald Trump seems to have made the federal agency a weapon against his opponents, are these arrests at the NBA season launch a message? This is what notably Stephen A. Smith claimed, explaining that the American president was taking revenge for the league's activism.
"I am the FBI director," responded Patel. "It is me who decides which arrests must be made and which must not be. This is perhaps the most stupid thing I have ever heard from someone in modern history, and I spend most of my time in Washington, D.C."
This article was originally published on Basket USA.
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