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Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested Thursday as part of a federal investigation into illegal betting activities, federal law enforcement officials said during a news conference in New York.
Rozier, 31, was taken into custody in Orlando, where the Heat played on Wednesday night. He 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’s agent, Aaron Turner, confirmed Rozier was arrested in relation to the federal probe, but said the player planned to fight the charges, having been previously cleared by the NBA.
Billups, 49, a Hall of Fame player before he became a coach, and ex-Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Damon Jones were also arrested.
Prosecutors said at least two cases were pending separately but with some overlap and connections. One is related to sports betting, the other is related to poker games that prosecutors say were rigged.
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Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier arrested in federal gambling probe
The Lakers are currently not available to comment. Team and league sources said that Damon Jones wasn’t an employee of the Lakers at the time of these allegations. He was allowed to be in restricted spaces such as planes and locker rooms as he worked with LeBron James.
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During questioning it was said that the NBA cooperated with the investigation and it was not related to college sports.
The FBI is known to have been looking into match fixing, with at least five universities being investigated.
Kash Patel, the FBI director, was also asked why he said this announcement would not be popular.
"It's not popular to go after some of the defendants we went after today," he said, adding: "Justice is blind."
The language mirrors the kind that Adam Silver uses for these types of situations and how he has talked about the Jontay Porter case.
On March 23, 2023, Rozier, while playing for the Hornets, let others close to him know that he planned to leave early with injury. Associates bet more than $200,000 on Rozier's unders and winnings were delivered to Rozier's home, the indictment alleges.
The Feb. 9, 2023, game between the Bucks and Lakers that was referenced in the FBI’s investigation into sports betting was one that LeBron James did not play in. He was ruled out due to ankle soreness.
According to the indictment, Damon Jones, a friend of James’ who was not a formal employee of the Lakers, sold or tried to profit from non-public information so that others could bet on it, including alleged co-conspirators Eric Earnest and Marves Fairley. It was about who would not be playing or if they would pull themselves out of games early. Before the Feb. 9, 2023 Lakers game against the Bucks, Jones texted an unnamed co-conspirator that a player was out and they should bet the Bucks. The player was not on the injury report yet. He also gave information on the 2023-24 Lakers, including Player 4, who the DOJ said was one of the Lakers’ best players that season.
James also did not play in the Lakers’ next two games before returning in the team’s final game before the All-Star break on Feb. 15, 2023.
The investigation was called "Operation Royal Flush" by law enforcement. It started about four years ago.
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According to the indictment, Jones sold or tried to profit from non-public information so that others could bet on it, including Earnest and Fairley. It was about who would not be playing or if they would pull themselves out of games early. Before the Feb. 9, 2023, Lakers game against the Bucks, Jones texted an unnamed co-conspirator that a player was out and they should bet the Bucks. The player was not on the injury report yet. He also gave information on the 2023-24 Lakers including Player 4, who the DOJ said was one of the Lakers’ best players that season.
The two indictments lists 34 defendants.
Thirteen members of the Bonano, Gambino and Genovese crime familes, according to Christopher Raya, assistant director of the FBI’s NY field office.
Jones, 49, played 11 NBA seasons and also spent years following his career as both an assistant coach and personal shooting coach for LeBron James when James rejoined the Cavs in 2014. As a player with the Miami Heat and subsequently after his playing career was finished, Jones struggled with a gambling addiction that cost him large chunks of the millions he earned playing basketball, league sources said.
Fairley and Shane Hennen bet about $100,000 on that Blazers game, the DOJ alleges.
The indictment said one unnamed co-conspirator told a co-defendant, Eric Earnest, that the Blazers were tanking ahead of a March 24, 2023, game and that a certain player would sit out. Earnest then shared that information with Marves Fairley, who shared it further and bet on it.
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The fraud is mind boggling," FBI director Kash Patel said. "We're talking tens of millions of dollars in theft and fraud and robbery."
The DOJ alleges that Terry Rozier told a co-defendant, Deniro Laster, that he was going to take himself out during the first quarter of a March 23, 2023 Hornets game with an injury so that Laster could bet on it. Laster shared that information and was paid $100,000 for it by Marves Fairley, according to the indictment. That information was then shared with others, who bet on it, prosecutors said. Another defendant, Shane Hennen, bet $61,200 on prop bets on Rozier's unders, and then ordered a syndicate of associates to bet, too, the indictment said.
In all, $259,000 was waged on Rozier by that group, the indictment said. Rozier left that game after playing 9 minutes and 34 seconds.
Billups and Jones are alleged to have taken part in rigged poker games in Manhattan.
FBI director Kash Patel says:
The investigation involves La Casa Nostra.
Multiple-year investigation across 11 states.
According to John Marzulli, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office:
Terry Rozier will appear in federal court sometime this afternoon in Orlando, Fla.
Chauncey Billups is expected to appear in federal court in Portland today.
Both will later be arraigned in New York.
Jim Trusty, the lawyer representing Terry Rozier, says prosecutors changed their approach on Rozier compared with their previous 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. 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. They appear to be taking the word of spectacularly in-credible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing."
Trusty added: "Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case. Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight."
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The NBA has its own internal group made up of lawyers and a full-time data scientist who monitor and investigate irregular bets or line movements. It’s led by Dan Spillane, a senior vice president of league governance & policy at the NBA, and Elizabeth Maringer, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and now a senior VP with the league. That group looks into unusual activity to see if, say, a betting line moved because of something off-base or something like a late-breaking injury or scratch that might be a more benign explanation. The league also relies on its basketball operations and security divisions to play a role in integrity monitoring and enforcement.
But it also uses external resources, as part of the data sharing patchwork of leagues, monitors, regulators and gambling operators. It leans on Sportradar and U.S. Integrity, and groups like the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), which is a conglomerate of global betting operators that shares information on an ad hoc basis.
Former Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter was banned by the NBA last April after he was caught manipulating his performance in multiple games during the 2023-24 season.
Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups will appear in federal court in Florida and Oregon later Thursday, according to the people briefed on the arrests.
