(MIAMI) -- Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups is among those charged in an illegal poker operation tied to the Mafia, while Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier is among several people charged in a separate but related illegal gambling case, authorities announced on Thursday.
Both have immediately been placed on leave by their teams, the NBA said.
"We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today," the NBA said in a statement. "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."
The poker games, which included basketball players to lend credibility to their authenticity, were allegedly rigged in favor of those running the games, using advanced technology, such as rigged shuffling machines and even X-ray technology to read cards facing down on the table, U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said.
Games were organized beginning in 2019 in the Hamptons, Manhattan, Las Vegas and Miami, officials said. The profits from the alleged poker scheme ran up to $7 million "and counting," officials said. The investigation took place across two years, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
When victims, some of whom lost millions, refused to pay, the mob defendants resorted to violence, the NYPD said.
"The fraud is mindboggling," FBI Director Kash Patel said at a news conference in Brooklyn announcing the charges. "We're talking about tens of millions of dollars in theft, in fraud, in robbery."
Billups coached the Trail Blazers in their season opener on Wednesday night, a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Billups was also a Hall of Fame player, mostly for the Detroit Pistons, before retiring in 2014. He was a five-time All-Star in his 17 years in the NBA and led the Pistons to the NBA title in 2004, being named Finals MVP.
Christopher Raia, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office, called it a "massive, nationwide takedown" of 34 defendants in connection with two separate sports betting and illegal poker schemes.
Among the defendants are current and former NBA coaches and players, authorities said, as well as 13 Mafia members and associates from the Bonano, Gambino and Genovese crime families.
Authorities described it as a "sprawling criminal enterprise" to "dupe unsuspecting gamblers."
Meanwhile, in what officials described as an "overlapping" case tied to prop betting on NBA games, Rozier and former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones have been arrested.
Rozier and Jones allegedly passed inside information to four co-defendants, who are accused of passing the information to a network of sports bettors, sources said. Those bettors allegedly placed wagers with online sports books or retail betting outlets, which prohibit betting based on nonpublic information.
The indictment included an example from March 23, 2023, when Rozier -- then playing for the Charlotte Hornets -- allegedly tipped off a co-defendant that he planned to leave the game early with a purported injury, sources said. He left the game nine minutes in. A co-defendant and others allegedly placed $200,000 in wagers, betting Rozier would underperform his statistics.
"A long time ago we reached out to these prosecutors to tell them we should have an open line of communication," Rozier's lawyer, James Trusty, said in a statement. "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."
He continued, "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."
Rozier is in his 11th year in the NBA. He's appeared in 665 games and has averaged 13.9 points per game over 665 games played. He was a key contributor for the Boston Celtics on playoff runs in 2016-19 before joining the Hornets.
His team opened the 2025 season Wednesday night in Orlando, but Rozier did not play as he deals with a hamstring injury.
Jones, meanwhile, used an ad-hoc affiliation with the Los Angeles Lakers to obtain nonpublic medical information about certain players that prosecutors said he sold to co-defendants so they could make bets.
On Feb. 9, 2023, when the Lakers played the Bucks, Jones allegedly sent a text message to a co-conspirator saying, “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out! [Player 3] is out tonight. Bet enough so Djones can eat.” The prominent player in question did not play and the Lakers went on to lose.
Jones was a role player for several teams over 11 years in the NBA, most notably on the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers' championship team.
Tisch dubbed this investigation “Nothing But Bet” and took particular aim at Rozier’s alleged participation.
"As the NBA season tips off, his career is already benched, not for injury but for integrity," Tisch said.
The NBA cooperated with the investigation, prosecutors said.
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