Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier have been arrested as part of a pair of wide-ranging investigations related to illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the Mafia, authorities announced Thursday.
Billups and Rozier were among a total of 34 people arrested. The arrests were the result of a yearslong investigation covering 11 states and involving tens of millions of dollars, FBI director Kash Patel said. Patel and other law enforcement officials said the multiple charges involve four Mafia families and organized crime networks and "mind-boggling" amounts of fraud.
Rozier, who was arrested Thursday morning at a hotel in Orlando, Florida, is accused of participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information. The Heat lost their season opener to the Magic on Wednesday, when Rozier did not play due to a coach's decision.
According to the indictment, Rozier and other defendants "had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches" that was likely to affect the outcome of games or players' performances and provided that information to other coconspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of betting profits.
U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. called it "one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States."
Billups, who was arrested in Oregon, is charged in a separate indictment alleging a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games that were backed by Mafia families, authorities said. The defendants are accused of using technology to steal more than $7 million from victims in the New York area, Nocella said.
Both Billups and Rozier face money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy charges, according to the indictments. Billups and Rozier are expected to make initial court appearances later Thursday in Oregon and Florida, respectively.
Former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones was among those arrested Thursday. He allegedly provided inside information about NBA games to codefendants who used it to place sports bets.
According to Nocella, six defendants are accused of being involved in the sports betting case, while there are 31 defendants allegedly involved in the rigged poker games. Jones is one of three people allegedly involved in both cases, Nocella said.
Sportsbooks in multiple states flagged suspicious betting interest on Rozier's statistics ahead of a Charlotte Hornets-New Orleans Pelicans game on March 23, 2023. An unexpected surge of bets -- including 30 wagers in 46 minutes from a professional bettor totaling $13,759 -- came in on the under on Rozier's points, rebounds and assists, causing sportsbooks to halt betting on the veteran guard. Rozier, then with the Hornets, played just 10 minutes before leaving the game, citing a foot injury.
Rozier's attorney, Jim Trusty, previously told ESPN that his client met with NBA and FBI officials multiple times in 2023. The NBA said it looked into the matter at the time and did not find that any league rules were broken.
Billups has served as the Trail Blazers' coach since 2021 and was on the sideline for their season-opening loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. He is an NBA champion and Finals MVP as a player with the Detroit Pistons, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024. Billups signed a multiyear contract extension with the Trail Blazers in April.
Rozier, 31, is in the final season of a four-year, $96.3 million contract he signed with the Hornets in August 2021. The March 23, 2023, game was Rozier's last of the 2022-23 season with the Hornets, who traded him to the Heat in January 2024.
His case is connected to the betting scandal involving former Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter, who was banned from the NBA in the spring of 2024 for his role in a gambling scheme around player prop bets. Porter pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and admitted in court to manipulating his performance in two games during the 2023-24 season. He is awaiting sentencing in December.
Four men, including Porter, have pleaded guilty in the case. Two other men have been named as conspirators and have been in plea negotiations, according to court filings.
Jones, 49, played for 10 NBA teams over an 11-year career from 1998 to 2009 and was a Cavaliers assistant from 2016 to 2018.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver, appearing on "The Pat McAfee Show" on Tuesday, said the league has been working with its sportsbook partners to combat attempts at manipulation.
"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 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."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.