Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat star Terry Rozier have been arrested in connection to a federal gambling investigation.
Both Billups, 49, and Rozier, 31, were taken into custody on Thursday, October 23, authorities announced.
Billups was charged in an illegal poker operation tied to the Mafia. He was arrested in Oregon, where he coached the Trail Blazers season opening loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, October 22.
Rozier, who was arrested in Miami, and former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones were also charged in a separate but related illegal gambling case.
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Rozier did not play in the Heat’s season opener against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday, citing a coach’s decision.
The Eastern District of New York and FBI director Kash Patel held a news conference on Thursday where they detailed the investigation.
Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, called it “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”
Rozier is accused of participating in an illegal sports betting scheme that used private insider NBA information.
Per The Athletic, Rozier “was accused of telling members of a betting ring that he would leave a game early, allowing them to wager on his prop bets with the knowledge that he would not rack up stats.”
Rozier, who was previously cleared of the charges in an investigation by the NBA, plans to fight the charges.
“We have represented Terry Rozier for over a year,” Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, said in a statement. “A long time ago we reached out to these prosecutors to tell them we should have an open line of communication. They characterized Terry as a subject, not a target, but at 6 a.m. this morning they called to tell me FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel.”
The statement continued, “It is unfortunate that instead of allowing him to self surrender they opted for a photo op. They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk. That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case.”
Billups is charged in a separate indictment tied to underground poker games that were allegedly backed by Mafia families. Nocella said Billups and the other defendants listed are accused of using technology to steal millions from victims in the New York area.
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In total, 34 people across 11 states were arrested as part of the investigation.
“We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today,” the NBA said in a statement on Thursday. “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.”
During an appearance on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, October 21, NBA commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged the league was working with its sportsbook partners in an attempt to curb allegations like the ones presented in the indictment.
“We’ve asked some of our partners to pull back some of the prop bets, especially when they’re on two-way players, guys who don’t have the same stake in the competition, where it’s too easy to manipulate something, which seems otherwise small and inconsequential to the overall score,” Silver, 63, said. “We’re trying to put in place — learning as we go and working with the betting companies — some additional control to prevent some of that manipulation.”
