(NewsNation) — Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were among more than 30 people arrested Thursday in connection with a federal probe into sports gambling and rigged poker games, authorities said.
Both men are on leave from their teams, the NBA announced.
Rozier, 31, is accused of participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information, officials said. He did not play in Miami’s season-opening loss to the Magic on Wednesday due to a coach’s decision and was arrested Thursday at a hotel in Orlando, Florida.
Billups, who was arrested in Oregon, is charged in a separate indictment alleging a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games connected to the La Cosa Nostra crime families, authorities said.
“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the NBA said in a statement.
Sports betting and rigged poker games
The indictments are related to two separate cases involving sports betting and rigged poker games, U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said.
In the first case, six defendants are accused of participating in an insider sports betting scheme that exploited confidential information about NBA athletes and teams, Nocella said. He called it “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”
Alleged insider info involved Lebron James’ injury status: Reports
Among the defendants, former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones is accused of sharing and selling insider information to co-conspirators about lineup decisions and “pre-release” medical information relating to Los Angeles Lakers Games on Feb. 9, 2023, and Jan. 15, 2024, federal prosecutors said.
ESPN reports that specifically, Jones encouraged a coconspirator to bet on the Milwaukee Bucks on Feb. 9, 2023, because his former Cavaliers teammate, Lebron James, would be out of the Lakers’ lineup. The Bucks prevailed 115-106 that night, as James recovered from ankle soreness.
The following year, Jones allegedly provided inside information related to the Lakers-Oklahoma City Thunder game on Jan. 15.
James has not been accused of wrongdoing.
The second case involves 31 defendants accused of rigging illegal poker games nationwide, Nocella said. Defendants include former professional athletes accused of stealing millions of dollars in underground poker games in the New York area, he said.
“The fraud is mind-boggling,” FBI Director Kash Patel said, emphasizing that the arrests are part of a yearslong illegal gambling investigation that “envelops both the NBA and La Casa Nostra.”
“Not only did we crack into the fraud that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage of the NBA, but we also entered and executed a system of justice against La Cosa Nostra to include the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese and Luchese crime families,” Patel said.
Probe involves ‘tens of millions of dollars in fraud’: FBI director
Patel said the charges and arrests range from “wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery, illegal gambling.”
The exact charge or charges Billups and Rozier face were not immediately known.
Patel said the investigation includes “tens of millions of dollars in fraud, and theft and robbery.”
“We will not allow this kind of illicit activity to happen, not only at the national sporting level, but also where it hides in La Cosa Nostra,” he said. “When these two collided together, they perpetrated a fraud that is historic in terms of not just money, but the scheme and the deceit that they utilized to steal and swindle people for money, including crypto fraud.”
Defendants accused of using insider info to place bets
Joe Nocella, U.S attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said that in the case in which Rozier is charged, defendants exploited insider information to bet on NBA games.
“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,” he said.
“They also misused information obtained through long-standing friendships that they had with NBA players and coaches, and in at least one instance, they got their information by threatening a current player – (Jontay) Porter – because of his preexisting gambling bets,” he added.
He said the bets were mainly placed “in the form of prop bets on individual player performance … through online sports books and also in person at casinos.”
Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier to appear in court
Billups and Rozier were expected to appear in court Thursday in Portland and Orlando, respectively.
Rozier was previously under investigation for unusual betting activity during his time with the Hornets, specifically a March 2023 contest. However, the NBA found no violation.
“In March 2023, the NBA was alerted to unusual betting activity related to Terry Rozier’s performance in a game between Charlotte and New Orleans,” NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said earlier this year.
Billups has coached since 2021, following a widely lauded 17-season playing career that culminated in the sport’s highest honor: enshrinement in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024.
In a statement to NewsNation, Rozier’s lawyer said: “We have represented Terry Rozier for over a year. A long time ago we reached out to these prosecutors to tell them we should have an open line of communication.
“They characterized Terry as a subject, not a target, but at 6 a.m. this morning they called to tell me FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel. It is unfortunate that instead of allowing him to self-surrender they opted for a photo op. They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk. That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case.
“They 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. Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”