LeBron James dragged into NBA mafia gambling scandal after his private information is ‘leaked’ as Chauncey Billups and Heat star are suspended: Live updates

Former Cleveland Cavalier Damon Jones, who worked with Lebron James in the 2022-23 season, was indicted in the NBA gambling scandal.

Prosecutors say Jones shared private information about James’ injury status with gamblers just days after he set the league’s all-time scoring record.

According to the FBI, Jones sold or tried to profit from non-public information about the basketball legend, before he was ruled out of a game against the Milwaukee Bucks on February 9, 2023.

He was an unofficial assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2022-23 when he allegedly was involved with the sports betting scheme, according to the indictment.

The National Basketball Association released a statement addressing the indictment of Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier.

‘We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today. 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.’

US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. incorrectly named the Toronto Raptors as the ‘Toronto Rangers’ in Thursday’s gambling racket press conference.

‘The indictment details specific examples where the defendants profited from illegal gambling and illegal betting on various NBA games about the performance of players among other things.’

‘The Charlotte Hornets, Portland Trailblazers, the Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Rangers – each defendant in the NBA basketball gambling case has been charged with the conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.’

According to the indictment, some of the suspects are accused of rigging poker games at locations on Lexington Avenue and Washington Place in Manhattan.

Prosecutors say the games were run with ‘the express permission and approval of, members and associates of certain organized crime families of La Cosa Nostra, who provided support and protection for the games and collected owed debts from the games in exchange for a portion of the illegal gambling proceeds.’

Terry Rozier’s arrest comes after sportsbooks in multiple states flagged suspicious betting activity on the player’s statistics ahead of the Charlotte Hornets-New Orleans Pelicans game on March 23, 2023.

The FBI alleges that Rozier told the defendants he was going to leave the game early, sparking a flurry of wages on the under for Rozier’s points, rebounds and assists.

Sportsbooks consequently halted betting on the veteran, but it is alleged that over $200,000 of wagers were placed, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in profits.

Rozier, who was suiting up for the Hornets at the time, would ultimately leave the game in less than 10 minutes of action due to what was described at the time as a ‘sore right foot.’

He had just five points, four rebounds, two assists, and a foul.
It is then alleged he counted the money with other defendants at his home.

Pictured: Rozier at said Hornets-Pelicans game on March 23, 2023

Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, 49, was arrested in a case linked to an illegal poker operation connected with the Mafia.

Billups played for Boston, Detroit, Toronto, Denver, Minnesota, the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers.

He won the Joe Dumars Trophy, the NBA’s sportsmanship award, in 2009 while playing for his hometown Denver Nuggets.

Now, he’s in his fifth season as Portland’s coach, compiling a 117-212 record.

Billups was a five-time All-Star with an NBA playing career that spanned 17 seasons, including a championship with Detroit in 2004. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame last year.

He has been married to his wife, Piper Billups, since 2001 and the couple has three daughters.

Pictured with his wife, Piper, and their three daughters

Democrat Congressman Paul Tonko, who is a co-sponsor of federal legislation to create checks on the sports betting industry issued a statement on the NBA gambling scheme.

‘Scandals like this are an inevitable consequence of the unchecked explosion of the sports betting industry. That’s why we need to pass my SAFE Bet Act – to address public health, protect competitive integrity, and give sports back to the American people,’ he said.

‘It’s time for @NBA and other professional leagues to throw their weight behind minimum federal standards on sports gambling before this problem gets even further out of hand.’

FBI Director Kash Patel praised his investigators’ work busting the alleged illegal gambling scheme on X.

‘Today the FBI dismantled a multi-million dollar gambling ring tied to La Cosa Nostra, including current & former NBA players and coaches — as well as an inside scheme to rig sports betting outcomes for profit,’ he said.

‘Cheating, corruption, and laundering have consequences. We followed the money, and the law caught up.’

This case was brought by the same US attorney’s office that previously prosecuted ex-NBA player Jontay Porter.

The former Toronto Raptors center pleaded guilty to charges that he withdrew early from games, claiming illness or injury, so that those in the know could win big with ‘prop bets’ – wagering that he would underperform expectations.

Porter was banned from the NBA for life and is scheduled for sentencing on December 10.

When asked by a reporter, US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. confirmed that the National Basketball Association had cooperated during the illegal gambling probe.

‘Yes, the NBA has cooperated with the investigation,’ he said.

He also noted that the investigation did not involve college basketball.

La Cosa Nostra refers to the collection of Italian-American organized crime ‘families,’ also known as the Mafia or the mob.

While the mob no longer possesses the robust national presence and influence it once had, it is still considered a significant threat in the New York metropolitan area, New England, Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit, according to the FBI.

In New York City, five major Italian-American ‘families’ dominate organized crime.

The ‘families’ are: Bonnano, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese.

New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch explained how Terry Rozier allegedly participated in the gambling scheme.

‘One example occurred on March 23, 2023, in Charlotte. Terry Rozier, an NBA player now with the Miami Heat, but at the time playing for the (Charlotte) Hornets, allegedly let others close to him know that he planned to leave the game early with a supposed injury,’ she said.

‘Using that information, members of the group placed more than $200,000 in wagers on his “under” statistics. Rozier exited the game after just nine minutes, and those bets paid out, generating tens of thousands of dollars in profit.

‘The proceeds were later delivered to his home, where the group counted their cash. As the NBA season tips off, his career is already benched, not for injury, but for integrity.’

US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. described how the suspects rigged high-stakes poker games with advanced technology.

‘For example, they used off-the-shelf shuffling machines that had been secretly altered in order to read the cards in the deck, predict which player at the table had the best poker hand, and relay that information to an off-site operator,’ he said.

‘The off-site operator sent the information via cellphone back to a co-conspirator at the table, and that person at the table was known as the quarterback.’

Nocella added, ‘The quarterback then signaled secretly the information he had received from others to others at the table, and together, they use that information in order to win their games and to cheat the victims.

‘Defendants used other cheating technologies such as poker chip tray analyzers, which is a poker chip tray that secretly reads cards using a hidden camera, special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read pre-marked cards and an X-ray table that could read cards face down on the table.’

New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch said their investigation into the scheme was called ‘Operation Nothing But Bet.’

Professional athletes were used as ‘face cards’ to lure victims, referred to as ‘fish,’ to play fixed poker games where everyone else was in on the scheme, prosecutors say.

‘The so-called face cards included the defendant Chauncey Billups, who at the time of the scheme was a former NBA player and is currently the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and also Damon Jones, a former NBA player,’ US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. said.

‘Once the game was underway, the defendants fleeced the victims out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game.’

US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. had a harsh rebuke for the suspects charged in the gambling scheme.

‘My message to the defendants who have been rounded up today is this: your winning streak has ended,’ Nocella said.

‘Your luck has run out. Violating the law is a losing proposition, and you can bet on that.’

Kash Patel shared that the money involved in the gambling investigation is in the ‘tens of millions of dollars.’

‘We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation,’ he said.

‘We will not allow this kind of illicit activity to happen, not only at the national sporting level, but also where it hides in La Cosa Nostra.

‘And when these two collided together, they perpetrated a fraud that is historic in terms of not just money, but the scheme and the deceit that they utilize to steal and swindle people for money, to include crypto fraud.’

FBI Director Kash Patel revealed that several infamous mob families have connections to the gambling probe.

‘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,’ Patel said.

‘The charges and the arrests that were taken down across this country range from wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery, illegal gambling – this FBI will leave no room for any perpetrator of crime across this country.’

John Marzulli, a spokesperson for the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, revealed that 31 people have been arrested as a result of the NBA gambling investigation.

‘I believe there’s about 31 people in custody, and others will be there will be some who will self surrender,’ Marzulli said.

Jim Trusty, attorney for Terry Rozier, has told Pablo Torre: ‘We have represented Terry Rozier for over a year. 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. 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. 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.’

It has just been announced that Terry Rozier will appear in federal court in Orlando this afternoon.

Billups will appear in federal court in Portland, although the timings of that have not been disclosed.

The case has been brought by the U.S. attorney´s office in Brooklyn that previously prosecuted ex-NBA player Jontay Porter.

The former Toronto Raptors center pleaded guilty to charges that he withdrew early from games, claiming illness or injury, so that those in the know could win big by betting on him to underperform expectations.

The NBA was left in chaos just two days into the new season when veteran player Rozier and Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups were arrested as part of a sweeping FBI probe into illegal gambling.

The pair, as well as former Cleveland Cavaliers player Damon Jones, were among the reported 31 arrests made in the FBI’s investigation early on Thursday morning.

For all the latest, click below.

Welcome to the Daily Mail’s coverage of what has been an explosive morning in the NBA.

The new season is barely two days old yet the league has been engulfed by a sports betting crisis on Thursday morning that has seen Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heart guard Terry Rozier arrested.

FBI Director Kash Patel and The Eastern District of New York are due to give a press conference at 10am ET. Stick with us for live updates.