Sports
NBA Rocked As Star Players Arrested For Mob-Backed Gambling and Betting Schemes: ‘Luck Has Run Out’
More than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers coach and NBA Hall-of-Famer Chauncey Billups, and former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones — were arrested on Thursday, October 23 as part of an FBI sting on alleged sports betting and illegal gambling schemes.
An investigation into a betting scheme — dubbed “Operation Nothing But Net” — discovered evidence that inside information was provided for wagers online and in casinos, officials said.
“Most of these bets succeeded, and the intended losses were in the millions of dollars,” US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. alleged in a press conference, per NBC News. “The defendants then laundered their illegal winnings in various ways, peer-to-peer platforms, bank wires and simple cash exchanges.”
In the second investigation — dubbed “Operation Royal Flush” — authorities claim NBA stars lured victims to illegal poker games that were rigged using cutting-edge technology by New York City mob families.
“Not only did we crack into the fraud that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage of the NBA, but we also entered and executed a system of justice against La Casta Nostra to include the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese crime families,” FBI Director Kash Patel said per the Daily Mail, adding that the “fraud is mind-boggling” and charges range from wire fraud and money laundering to extortion, robbery and illegal gambling.
“My message to the defendants who have been rounded up today is this: your winning streak has ended,” Nocella added. “Your luck has run out.”
According to NBC News, the NBA is cooperating fully with authorities.
Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, claimed that the former Charlotte Hornets player, 31, “was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case,” Trusty said in a statement to The New York Times. “Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”
