Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier have been arrested as part of an investigation related to rigged poker games and illegal sports betting tied to the mafia, authorities announced on Thursday.
34 total people were arrested, including Billups and Rozier. FBI Director Kash Patel said that the arrests were made after a years long investigation that involved tens of millions of dollars and ranged across 11 states. He also said the charges involved four mafia families and organized crime networks, as well as a significant amount of fraud.
Billups was arrested in Oregon, and is charged with an indictment alleging a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games backed by the mafia. Rozier was arrested in Florida, and he is accused of participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information. He also didn’t play in Miami’s season opener against the Magic due to a coaches decision.
U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. said that this was “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized.”
Both men are set to make their court appearances late Thursday in their respective states of arrest.
Former Cleveland Cavalier Damon Jones was also arrested for allegedly providing inside information about NBA games to codefendants used to place bets.
On March 23, 2023, multiple sportsbooks flagged suspicious betting activity surrounding Rozier’s stats. Multiple bets came in on the under for the veteran guards props, where Rozier, then with the Hornets, played just 10 minutes before leaving the game with an apparent foot injury. His attorney previously had said that they had met with NBA and FBI officials multiple times in 2023, where the NBA said it did not find and rules were broken.
The NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that the league is working to combat manipulation attempts, alongside its sportsbook partners.




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