NEW YORK, NY—On Thursday, October 23, the FBI announced that NBA Coach, Chauncey Billups, 49, the head coach of the Portland Trailblazers was arrested in a gambling probe.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced that it was an illegal gambling and sports operation that took place over 11 years, and they arrested a total of 31 people involved in wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery, and illegal gambling.
“This FBI will leave no room for any perpetrator of crime across this country. You hear a lot about our work defending the homeland and crushing crime, well this work is also a representative of a colossal portion of the FBI’s mandate to keep America safe and to keep our entertainment industry fair and secure,” Patel said during the press conference. “The fraud is mind boggling…tens of millions of dollars in fraud, theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation.”
“Tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft,” Patel stated during a news conference Thursday morning. “It takes courageous prosecutors courage to stand in front of you…we will not deny anyone due process,” Patel added. He added the gambling operation involves insider trading with the NBA.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. of the Eastern District of New York announced two indictments. The scheme was an insider sports betting conspiracy that spilled confidential details about basketball operations. The second indictment involved high-tech cheating devices in underground poker room games involving mob families from the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese crime families. He added during the press conference that the NBA did cooperate with the investigation, and that details of the case did not involve college basketball.
“As alleged, members and associates of organized crime families fixed illegal poker games as part of a highly sophisticated and lucrative fraud scheme to cheat victims out of millions of dollars and conspired with others to perpetrate their frauds,” stated United States Attorney Nocella. “Well-known former NBA players and former professional athletes, acted as ‘Face Cards’ to lure unsuspecting victims to high-stakes poker games, where they were then at the mercy of concealed technology, including rigged shuffling machines and specially designed contacts lenses and sunglasses to read the backs of playing cards, which ensured that the victims would lose big. Today’s indictment and arrests sounds the final buzzer for these cheaters.”
Billups has been the coach for the Portland Trail Blazers since 2021. He was drafted into the NBA in 1997 to the Boston Celtics as the third overall pick. He won an NBA Championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004. He is a five-time all-star and an NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. He retired from the league in 2014.
Damon Jones, 49, played with the Cleveland Cavaliers during his time in the NBA league. Jones was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, Thursday morning. Former Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, 31, was arrested Thursday morning in Orlando, Florida in connected to the case. Rozier played with the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans.
“Beginning as early as 2019, the defendants orchestrated a scheme to utilize wireless technology to rig,” Nocella, Jr. stated.
As alleged in the indictment, beginning as early as 2019, the defendants engaged in a series of schemes to use wireless cheating technology to rig illegal poker games (most commonly, Texas Hold’em) in the Eastern District of New York and across the United States. Co-conspirators in the scheme included game organizers, who arranged for unwitting victims to play in underground illegal poker games that were secretly rigged; suppliers of the rigged cheating technology; former professional athletes, who were enlisted as “Face Cards” in the scheme to entice the victims’ participation in the games; cheating teams who worked together using the cheating technology to defraud the victims; money launderers; and members and associates of the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese organized crime families of LCN, who backed games in the New York area and took a percentage of the crime proceeds from those games.
LCN members and associates had a foothold in the rigged poker scheme because they had preexisting control over “straight” (i.e., non-rigged) illegal poker games in New York City, where some of the rigged poker games also occurred: one that was hosted principally at Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, that was on record with the Bonanno family (the “Lexington Avenue Game”); and a second that was hosted principally at Washington Place in Manhattan, that was on record with the Gambino family (the “Washington Place Game”). As part of the schemes, some of the charged defendants and other co-conspirators also committed acts of violence, including the robbery and extortions charged in the indictment.
The defendants utilized off the shelf shuffling machines to read the cards off the deck and predict which players had the best poker hands and relayed that information to the off-site operator. That information was given to the quarterback and that information was given to others at the table to win their games and to cheat the victims.
“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,” stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge Raia. “This alleged scheme wreaked havoc across the nation, exploiting the notoriety of some and the wallets of others to finance the Italian crime families. Our office maintains its aggressive pursuit of any Italian organized crime operating in our jurisdiction and will continue to stem all unlawful revenue streams fueling their illicit activity.”
As alleged, members of the conspiracy fulfilled different roles to ensure the schemes’ success. The defendants Tony Goodson, Shane Hennen, Curtis Meeks, and Robert Stroud supplied the cheating technology. The defendants Ammar Awawdeh, Saul Becher, John Gallo, Zhen Hu, Stroud, and Seth Trustman organized the rigged games. Members of the cheating teams included the defendants Nelson Alvarez, Louis Apicella, Chauncey Billups, Eric Earnest, Marco Garzon, Jamie Gilet, Tony Goodson, Kenny Han, Hennen, Horatio Hu, Damon Jones, John Mazzola, Nicholas Minucci, Michael Renzulli, Angelo Ruggiero, Jr., Stroud, Trustman, and Sophia Wei.
In addition, the defendant Anthony Shnayderman, among others, laundered the proceeds of the schemes. Game organizers sometimes directed victims to send money via bank wires to shell companies controlled by Shnayderman, who then transferred money (either in cash or cryptocurrency), less a money laundering fee, back to the game organizers.
Bettors who were defrauded in the rigged games may be victims under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act. If you believe you were a victim of the scheme, please contact 1-800-CALLFBI.
The charges in the indictments are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
