Portland Trailblazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested on federal gambling charges related to a rigged poker operation tied to the Mafia and illegal sports betting, law enforcement announced on Thursday.
What are the defendants in the federal probes charged with?
In addition to Billups and Rozier, former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones was among the 34 people arrested in connection with the federal probes. This “historic arrest” spanned the course of years across 11 states, involving tens of millions of dollars in fraud, theft and robbery, FBI Director Kash Patel said during a news conference.
Patel, who other law enforcement officials surrounded, said the FBI’s “coordinated takedown” involved La Cosa Nostra, a term referring to the Italian-American Mafia, which is tied to four families involved in organized crime. The charges and the arrests on Thursday range from wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery and illegal gambling.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. of the Eastern District of New York called the case “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”
‘Violating the law is a losing proposition’
He confirmed that the two indictments in the case involve fraud, with one involving sports betting (six defendants) and the other involving rigged poker games (31 defendants). Only three people, including Jones, are tied to both indictments. He is accused of sports betting using private NBA information, ESPN reported.
Most of the illegal gambling and rigged poker games involved sporting events that took place in the New York area and were backed by the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese crime families, Nocella said.
“Your winning streak has ended. Your luck has struck out. Violating the law is a losing proposition, and you can bet on that,” he said of the defendants indicted in the federal probe during the news conference.
Billups and Rozier’s alleged criminal activity, explained
Billups, who was arrested on Thursday in Oregon, is accused of rigging underground poker games linked to the Mafia families, officials said. He has coached the Portland Trail Blazers since 2021 and led the team in its season-opening loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Additionally, Billups was a former NBA champion and Finals MVP with the Detroit Pistons. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024. He recently signed a multi-year contract extension with the Trail Blazers in April, per ESPN.
Sportsbooks in several states flagged unusual betting activity on Rozier’s stats before the March 23, 2023, game between the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans.
A professional bettor placed 30 wagers totaling $13,759 on the under for Rozier’s points, rebounds and assists, prompting sportsbooks to suspend betting. Rozier left the game after just 10 minutes, citing a foot injury.
As Blavity reported, Rozier was under investigation for illegal gambling and unusual betting patterns related to that game. He is currently in the final season of a four-year, $96.3 million contract he signed with the Hornets in August 2021. His case is also tied to former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, who the NBA banned after being linked to a prop bet investigation and later pleaded guilty in July 2024 to wire fraud.
“This alleged illegal gambling operation hustled unwitting victims out of tens of millions of dollars, and created a financial pipeline for La Cosa Nostra to help fund and facilitate their organized criminal activity,” FBI New York Assistant Director in Charge Christopher Raia said, according to CNBC.