Becky Sullivan
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
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Both of those are related actually to an indictment about underground poker games.
In that indictment, prosecutors allege that organized crime groups basically run these games and use Billups.
They say that they used Billups as a celebrity to sort of lure in victims and then the organizers used Billups.
all this high-tech equipment like rigged shuffling machines and x-ray poker tables and special glasses to cheat and win.
But the other indictment that's about sports gambling, Billups is not named there, but there is an unnamed co-conspirator described in a way that matches Billups exactly.
The indictment describes seven NBA games where insiders with knowledge that wasn't yet public gave or sold that info to gamblers who then placed bets on the games and profited.
One game involved Terry Rozier, the Miami guard who was then playing for the Charlotte Hornets.
Two others involved Jonte Porter, a center then with the Toronto Raptors.
The NBA had previously investigated both players.
The league cleared Rozier of wrongdoing, but last year Porter was banned for life.
Billups is named only in the indictment about rigged poker games run by organized crime groups, but an unnamed co-conspirator who matches his description allegedly told gamblers that the Trailblazers planned to tank a 2023 game against the Chicago Bulls.
Prosecutors say gamblers then bet more than $100,000 on the Blazers to lose, which they did.
Federal officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel, say that NBA insiders, such as Rozier, passed along confidential info to organized crime operations to place illegal bets on games.
Rozier was previously investigated by the NBA back in 2023 after the league was alerted to suspicious bets on a game of his that year.
The league had cleared him of wrongdoing.
In a statement to NPR, Rozier's lawyer said Rozier was not a gambler and that he, quote, looks forward to winning this fight.
The second indictment alleges that crime groups used former NBA stars like Billups to lure unsuspecting victims into high-roller underground poker games, then cheated victims out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Federal officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel, say that NBA insiders such as Rozier passed along confidential info to organized crime operations to place illegal bets on games.