NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors unsealed two indictments Thursday that lay out an illegal betting scheme that rocked the NBA, naming current and former players including Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat; former Clippers player and current Portland head coach Chauncey Billups; and retired NBA player and LeBron James friend Damon Jones.
Prosecutors accuse Rozier and Jones of using NBA private inside information, such as when players refused to help others profit from online leveraged bets.
In a separate indictment in the Eastern District of New York, Billups, who played for the Clippers for two seasons and was then a member of Clippers coach Ty Lue's staff before landing the head coaching job with the Trail Blazers, is charged with running underground poker games that supported three New York Mafia families, authorities said.
The NBA announced Thursday that Rozier and Billups were placed on leave, effective immediately.
“We take these allegations seriously and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the league said in a statement.
At a press conference in the presence of FBI Director Kash Patel, US Attorney. Joseph Nocella Jr. said Rozier and Jones are among six defendants allegedly involved in one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States. The scheme included the use of information about the National Basketball Association, athletes and teams, as well as coverage of games with the Toronto Raptors, Lakers, Charlotte Hornets and Portland Trail Blazers.
While each indictment unsealed Thursday is a separate case, they have overlapping defendants, including Jones, who spent 11 seasons in the league, Novella said. Federal prosecutors allege that between December 2022 and March 2024, the defendants, including Jones, used inside information to defraud players, including information about which players would miss games and when players had “previously pulled out of games due to suspected injuries or illnesses.”
Jones played more than 200 games with James over three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2005 to 2008 and served as an assistant coach during the Lakers' second stellar spell in Cleveland. In one indictment, prosecutors allege Jones was the Lakers' unofficial coach in 2022-23 when he used inside information to make sports bets related to the Lakers and specifically “Player 3,” a prominent NBA player.
While the indictment does not name the player, the date the player did not play in 2023 is the same date James did not play against the Milwaukee Bucks due to ankle soreness. According to the indictment, Jones, a friend of James, took advantage of classified information.
“Bet big on Milwaukee tonight before the word gets out!” According to the indictment, Jones wrote to an unnamed accomplice. “(Player 3) is out tonight.”
The Lakers declined to comment Thursday on the investigation. A person close to LeBron James told The Times that the Lakers star was unaware that Jones was selling injury information to bettors.
However, not all of Jones' information paid off, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors allege that before a game on Jan. 15, 2024, he told co-conspirators that another top Lakers player known as “Player 4,” who was listed as probable and injured, “may play limited minutes.”
Marves Fairley, charged with conspiracy, paid $100,000 against the Lakers for the game. However, the player played and the Lakers won. According to the indictment, Fairley forced Jones to return $2,500 he received for information. Although the player's identity is unknown, then-Lakers star Anthony Davis was considered a likely candidate for the game.
The indictment also accuses Rozier, referred to in court documents as “Scary Terry” and “Chum,” and several other conspirators for knowing James would leave the game early in March 2023.
On March 24, 2023, an unnamed co-conspirator told Eric Earnest that the Portland Trailblazers would “tank” to get the top pick in the NBA Draft and a player identified only as Player 1 would not play,” according to the indictment. Prosecutors allege that information about the player's absence was passed on to other co-conspirators, who then asked other participants to place $32,000 in bets.
The players made prop bets, a type of bet that allows players to place bets on whether a player will exceed a certain statistical number, such as whether a player will score over or under a certain number of points, rebounds, assists, etc., prosecutors allege.
According to the indictment, while Rozier was playing for the Hornets, he told others he planned to leave the game early due to a “suspected injury,” allowing others to place bets that brought in thousands of dollars, NYPD Commissioner Jennifer Tisch said.
Rozier and the other defendants allegedly provided this information to other co-conspirators in exchange for a flat fee or a share of the betting profits.
The other game in question involving Rozier was played a day earlier, on March 23, 2023, between the Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans. Rozier played the first 9 minutes and 36 seconds of that game – and not only did not return that night, citing a leg problem, but he also did not play again that season. Charlotte had eight games remaining and was out of the playoff picture, so it didn't seem particularly unusual for Rozier to sit out the final games of the season.
In that March 23 game, Rozier finished with five points, four rebounds and two assists in the first period—a productive quarter, but well below his usual full-game total.
Posts still available online from March 23, 2023, show some bettors were furious with bookmakers that night when it became apparent that Rozier was not going to return to the Charlotte-New Orleans game after the first quarter, and many took to social media to say something “shady” had happened regarding bets related to his stats that night.
But prosecutors say he was not the only one allegedly involved.
The indictment also names nine unnamed co-conspirators, including former NBA players in Florida and Oregon, a relative of Rozier, and a man who has been a coach in the league since 2021.
The second indictment involved 31 defendants in a “nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games,” Nocella said. “These defendants, who include former professional athletes, are accused of using high-tech fraud to steal millions of dollars from victims that were secretly recorded.”
Federal prosecutors allege that both Jones and Billups worked with members of several Mafia crime families to run fraudulent poker games in New York, luring wealthy players into illegal games and reaping millions of dollars in revenue.
According to authorities, the games in the New York area were supported by three New York mafia families: the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese mafia families. At least a dozen of the 31 defendants were associates or members of the three families, according to the complaint.
Among those named in the indictment was Joseph Lunney, known as a captain in the Gambino crime family. Lunny, known as “Joe Brooklyn,” was also named as a defendant in the case. 2023 racketextortion and witness retaliation charges in which members and associates of the Gambino family were accused of attempting to take control of New York's trucking and demolition businesses.
Lunney pleaded guilty last week to one count of racketeering conspiracy, according to court records.
According to the indictment unsealed Thursday, Billups and Jones were used to attract wealthy gamblers to games and were referred to as “face cards.” But according to federal indictments, the two were members of fraudulent crews. In exchange for participating in the games, Card Faces received a portion of the winnings.
According to court documents, the teams used specially equipped shuffling machines that read decks of cards and predicted which player at the table would have the best poker hand and relayed that information to someone called an operator. According to court documents, that person would then relay that information to one member of the fraud team at the desk, known as the “Protector” or “Driver.”
In some cases, fraudulent teams used poker chips that could secretly read cards on the table. In other cases, players used points that could reveal special markings on cards.
Members of various crime families provided protection for the games, federal prosecutors say, and collected debts.
Prosecutors allege that between April 2019 and October of this year, members of the rogue teams stole more than $7 million in rigged games.
Billups, a five-time All-Star and three-time NBA All-Star point guard, led the Detroit Pistons to their third championship in 2004 as NBA Finals MVP. He's in his fifth season as Portland's coach and was on the court Wednesday night in a 118-114 loss to Minnesota.
The FBI spent a lot of time investigating illegal gambling related to Los Angeles. The arrest of Gilbert Arenas for running illegal poker games at his Encino home and the embezzlement conviction of Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani's interpreter Ippei Mizuhara were not related to the investigation that led to Thursday's arrests.
In July, Arenas and five other defendants were indicted on federal charges for allegedly running an illegal gambling operation in which high-stakes poker games were held at Arenas' Encino mansion. Arenas, also known as “Agent Zero,” 43, of Woodland Hills, is charged with one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business, one count of operating an illegal gambling business and one count of making false statements to federal investigators.
The FBI also confirmed during a news conference Thursday that the wide-ranging investigation, which spanned many states, did not involve college athletes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
