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Tag: basketball hall of fame

  • Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups charged in Mafia-backed poker scheme

    NEW YORK — Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested Thursday along with more than 30 other people accused of participating in schemes involving illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the Mafia, authorities said.

    Rozier is accused of participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information, officials said. Billups, a Denver native who starred for the Nuggets during a long playing career, is charged in a separate indictment alleging a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games that were backed by Mafia families, authorities said.

    Both men face money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy charges and were expected to make initial court appearances later Thursday.

    In the first case, six defendants are accused of participating in an insider sports betting conspiracy that exploited confidential information about NBA athletes and teams, said Joseph Nocella, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. He called it “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”

    The second case involves 31 defendants in a nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games, Nocella said. The defendants include former professional athletes accused of using technology to steal millions of dollars in underground poker games in the New York area that were backed by Mafia families, he said.

    “My message to the defendants who’ve been rounded up today is this: Your winning streak has ended. Your luck has run out,” Nocella said.

    A message seeking comment was left Thursday morning with Billups. A message was also left with Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty. Trusty previously told ESPN that Rozier was told that an initial investigation determined he did nothing wrong after he met with NBA and FBI officials in 2023, the sports network reported.

    In the sports betting scheme, players sometimes altered their performance or took themselves out of games early, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. In one instance, Rozier, while playing for the Hornets, told people he was planning to leave the game early with a “supposed injury,” allowing them to place wagers that raked in thousands of dollars, Tisch said.

    The indictment of Rozier and others says there are nine unnamed co-conspirators, including a Florida resident who was an NBA player, an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from about 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021, as well as a relative of Rozier. Billups played in the NBA from 1997 to 2014 and currently resides in Portland as the Trail Blazers’ head coach.

    Rozier and other defendants “had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches” that was likely to affect the outcome of games or players’ performances and provided that information to other co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of betting profits, the indictment says.

    The NBA placed Billups and Rozier on immediate leave Thursday and released a statement: “We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today. Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups are being placed on immediate leave from their teams, and we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities. We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”

    Rozier was in uniform as the Heat played the Magic on Wednesday evening in Orlando, Florida, in the season opener for both teams, though he did not play in the game. He was taken into custody in Orlando early Thursday morning. The team did not immediately comment on the arrest.

    The case was brought by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn that previously prosecuted ex-NBA player Jontay Porter. The former Toronto Raptors center pleaded guilty to charges that he withdrew early from games, claiming illness or injury, so that those in the know could win big by betting on him to underperform expectations.

    Billups was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year. The five-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA point guard led the Detroit Pistons to their third league title in 2004 as NBA Finals MVP.

    The Denver-born phenom graduated from George Washington High School and played basketball at CU before being selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics.  Known as Mr. Big Shot nationally and the King of Park Hill locally in Denver, Billups also played for Toronto, Denver, Minnesota, the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers. Billups won the Joe Dumars Trophy, the NBA’s sportsmanship award, in 2009 while playing for his hometown Nuggets.

    The 49-year-old Billups is in his fifth season as Portland’s coach, compiling a 117-212 record. The Trail Blazers opened the season Wednesday night at home with a 118-114 loss to Minnesota. Billups’ brother, Rodney, is currently the Nuggets’ director of player development and an assistant coach on David Adelman’s staff.

    A game involving Rozier that has been in question was a matchup between the Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans on March 23, 2023. Rozier played the first 9 minutes and 36 seconds of that game — and not only did not return that night, citing a foot issue, but did not play again that season. Charlotte had eight games remaining and was not in playoff contention, so it did not seem particularly unusual that Rozier was shut down for the season’s final games.

    In that game, Rozier finished with five points, four rebounds and two assists in that opening period — a productive quarter but well below his usual total output for a full game.

    Posts still online from March 23, 2023, show that some bettors were furious with sportsbooks that evening when it became evident that Rozier was not going to return to the Charlotte-New Orleans game after the first quarter, with many turning to social media to say that something “shady” had gone on regarding the prop bets involving his stats for that night.

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  • Feds allege Chauncey Billups was ‘face card’ in high-stakes, Mafia-backed poker scam

    Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups — a Denver native and former basketball star at the University of Colorado and with the Denver Nuggets — allegedly participated in a years-long scheme to rig Mafia-led poker games through sophisticated technological means, scamming wealthy players out of millions of dollars, according to a sweeping federal indictment unsealed Thursday.

    Billups was arrested Thursday in Oregon and faces federal charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. The NBA said he was placed on immediate leave.

    The 49-year-old coach appeared in court later in the day, and attorneys from both sides told the judge they had agreed on Billups’ release from custody on the condition he secure “a substantial bond,” though the amount wasn’t discussed in court. He is also prohibited from gambling-related activity.

    Chris Heywood, Billups’ attorney, released a statement to ESPN on Thursday night denying the allegations.

    “To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his hall-of-fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game,” the statement read.

    “Furthermore, Chauncey Billups has never and would never gamble on basketball games, provide insider information, or sacrifice the trust of his team and the League, as it would tarnish the game he has devoted his entire life to.”

    The arrest came as part of a massive federal investigation into illegal, high-stakes poker games with ties to organized crime families. A second, related criminal case involved professional basketball players and coaches allegedly using inside information to set up fraudulent bets for their associates.

    The 22-page indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, alleges the poker games began as early as 2019 and spanned New York state, Las Vegas and Miami.

    Victims of the scheme thought they were playing in “straight” illegal poker games, according to the indictment.

    In reality, a group of people — referred to as the “cheating team” — worked together to scam them out of more than $7 million, investigators said.

    They used a variety of high-tech methods to rig the games, federal authorities alleged. Wireless technologies to read the cards dealt in each hand. Rigged shuffling machines. Electronic poker chip trays that could secretly read cards placed on the table. Card analyzers that could surreptitiously detect which cards were on the table. Playing cards that had markers visible only to people wearing specially designed contact lenses or glasses.

    Billups, investigators allege, was known as a “face card.” He and other former professional athletes were used to attract victims to the poker games. In exchange, they received portions of the criminal proceeds, authorities said.

    The indictment spells out one game in April 2019, in Las Vegas, when the group defrauded poker players of at least $50,000. Billups, along with four others, “organized and participated in these rigged games using a rigged shuffling machine,” according to the indictment.

    ‘Threats of force and violence’

    Authorities say the games operated “with the express permission and approval of” members of certain organized crime families of La Cosa Nostra.

    These individuals — with nicknames like “Spanish G,” “Flapper Poker,” “Sugar” and “Albanian Bruce” — provided support and protection for the games and collected debts in exchange for a portion of the illegal proceeds

    The organized crime families used “threats of force and violence” to secure repayment of debts from these poker games, according to the indictment.

    All told, the poker scheme defrauded participants of at least $7.15 million, investigators said.

    “Using the allure of high-stakes winnings and the promise to play alongside well-known professional athletes, these defendants allegedly defrauded unwitting victims out of tens of millions of dollars and established a financial pipeline to La Cosa Nostra,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia said in a statement. “This alleged scheme wreaked havoc across the nation, exploiting the notoriety of some and the wallets of others to finance the Italian crime families.”

    Thursday’s indictment “sounds the final buzzer for these cheaters,” said Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

    The second criminal case involved NBA players and coaches divulging nonpublic information to their associates for the purpose of placing bets.

    The 23-page indictment does not name Billups, but does list nine unnamed co-conspirators, including an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from about 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021. Billups played in the NBA from 1997 to 2014 and was hired by the Blazers in 2021.

    That individual, referred to as “co-conspirator 8,” allegedly told a bettor that several of the Blazers’ best players would be sitting out a March 23, 2023, game against the Chicago Bulls in order to increase their odds of getting a better draft pick.

    The gamblers wagered more than $100,000 that Portland would lose the game. The Blazers lost by 28.

    Chauncey Billups with the Denver Nuggets during practice at the Pepsi Center in Denver on April 6, 2010. (Photo By Craig F. Walker/The Denver Post)

    ‘The King of Park Hill’

    Billups was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year. The five-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA point guard led the Detroit Pistons to their third league title in 2004 as NBA Finals MVP.

    The Denver-born phenom graduated from George Washington High School and played basketball at CU before being selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics.

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