FBI announces NBA arrests in Mafia-linked gambling, sports rigging probes

More than 30 people, including an NBA coach Chauncey Billups And a player Terry RozierThey were arrested as part of federal investigations into gambling and “sports rigging” operations linked to several major crime families, law enforcement leaders said Thursday.

“We are here in New York to announce the historic arrest of a vast and comprehensive criminal network that includes the NBA and La Cosa Nostra,” FBI Director Kash Patel said at a press conference in Brooklyn, New York.

Billups, head coach of the national team Portland Trail Blazersrosier from Miami HeatPatel said former basketball player Damon Jones “were taken into custody today.”

Joseph Nocella, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said the NBA cooperated with law enforcement investigations. The NBA did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Nocella said the arrests stem from two major fraud cases: one involving sports betting, and the other related to “rigged poker games.”

The latest indictment names 31 defendants, including Billups, who allegedly “engaged in a nationwide scheme” to rig games using “high-tech cheating technology to steal millions of dollars from victims in secretly fixed underground poker games,” Nocella said.

He said the games held in the New York area were supported by the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese crime families.

The other indictment focuses on an internal sports betting conspiracy that Nocella called “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legal in the United States.”

This case involves six defendants, including Rozier. Jones is charged in both cases.

Nocella said former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter was previously charged in a sports gambling scheme. porter plead guilty in July 2024 for wire fraud conspiracy.

“This alleged illegal gambling operation netted tens of millions of dollars from unwitting victims and created a financial conduit for La Cosa Nostra to help fund and facilitate their organized criminal activity,” said Christopher Raya, Assistant Director of the FBI in New York.

Billups, a former player for the Detroit Pistons who spent 17 years in the NBA, was arrested in Portland, Oregon. Billups, a five-time All-Star, was inducted Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024

Rozier was arrested in Orlando, Florida.

Rozier, a 10-year NBA veteran, has reportedly been the subject of attention for several months due to suspicious sports betting activity related to his playing.

Billups was named NBA Finals MVP in 2004 when the Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.

Jones, 49, played for 10 teams, including three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, over more than a decade in his NBA career.

— CNBC Jessica Golden Contributed to reports.