Miami Heat Star Indicted In Illegal Sports Betting Schemes, Feds Say

MIAMI, FL — Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier is one of at least 30 people arrested in connection with illegal sports betting schemes involving the mafia, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and the FBI said Thursday at a joint news conference.

Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and former Cleveland Cavalier combo guard and NBA coach Damon Jones were all arrested Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel said.

"This is an illegal gambling operation and sports rigging operation that spanned the course of years," Patel said.

The FBI oversaw the investigation that stretched across 11 states, including in Florida, and involved the arrests of more than 30 people. Patel said the case is ongoing.

Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, said in a statement that his client is “not a gambler” and “looks forward to winning this fight.” Trusty said the FBI had previously said his client was not a target in the probe.

But at 6 a.m. “they called to tell me FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel,” Trusty said. ”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.”

In the sports betting scheme, players sometimes altered their performance or took themselves out of games early, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. In one instance, Rozier, while playing for the Charlotte Hornets, told people he was planning to leave the game early with a “supposed injury,” allowing them to place wagers that raked in thousands of dollars, Tisch said.

The indictment of Rozier and others says there are nine unnamed co-conspirators, including a Florida resident who was an NBA player, an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from about 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021, as well as a relative of Rozier.

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 co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of betting profits, the indictment says.

The NBA, which had investigated Rozier previously, had no immediate comment.

Rozier was in uniform as the Heat played the Magic on Wednesday evening in Orlando, Florida, in the season opener for both teams, though he did not play in the game. He was taken into custody in Orlando early Thursday morning.

The team did not immediately comment on the arrest.

New York-based U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said violent acts and extortions were implemented, including the "gunpoint robbery of a person to obtain a rigged shuffling machine." The extortions were applied to ensure victims repaid gambling debts, he said.

There were two separate indictments, both consisting of fraud, officials said.

In the first indictment, Rozier and five others were accused of participating "in one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the U.S."

This included the exploitation of NBA players' confidential information for the use of insider sports betting, Nocella said.

The group of six was indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, he said.

In the second indictment, federal prosecutors accused 31 people of utilizing high-end cheating technology to "steal millions of dollars from victims in underground poker games that were secretly fixed," Nocella said. Former professional athletes were among those indicted, he added.

Jones is one of three people to be charged in both cases, Nocella said.

Former Toronto Raptors star Jontay Porter was previously charged in connection with the suspected sports betting scheme, Nocella said.

The suspected theft, fraud and robbery spanned tens of millions of dollars, Patel said. Charges ranged from wire fraud to money laundering to extortion to robbery to illegal gambling.

"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 Cosa Nostra," he said.

The New York City games were supported by the Bonano, Gambino and Genovese organized crime families of La Cosa Nostra, Nocella said. They would assist in organizing the games and enforcing the collection of debts, getting a share of the money, he said.

"Your winning streak has ended," he said. "Your luck has run out. Violating the law is a losing proposition, and you can bet on that."

Accusations Against Rozier

Rozier and Jones, among others, are accused of using insider information regarding NBA players and teams to place hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent bets, which Nocella called "crop bets."

This happened between December 2022 and March 2024, and the player performance-based bets were placed through online sports books and at casinos, Nocella said.

He noted Rozier and Jones were relied upon to carry out the suspected theme. Federal prosecutors named Rozier an NBA insider.

Allegations include taking advantage of longterm friendships with coaches and players to gather when specific players would sit out future games or when the players would sit themselves out early due to injuries or illnesses.

At least once, Nocella said they would gather their information by threatening Porter, who had gambling debts at the time.

Bets were placed on games involving the Portland Trail Blazers, Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers and the Toronto Raptors, Nocella said.

"Straw betters" were used to place the maximum amount of bets to raise possible profits, he said. Largely, the bets were successful to comprise of millions of dollars in losses.

The winnings were then laundered in multiple ways, including through bank wires and cash exchanges, he said.

Accusations Against Billups

Billups and Jones were "face cards" used to rig poker games in Miami, Manhattan, the Hamptons and Las Vegas, Nocella said.

The victims in these cases were known as "fish" and were convinced to participate in the games for the chance to play against former professional athletes known as "face cards," Nocella said. Billups spent 17 years playing for teams in Boston, Toronto, Denver, Minnesota, Detroit and New York.

The victims were unaware that everyone, from the dealer to the card players, were in on the scheme, Nocella said.

"Once the game was underway, the victims were taken for hundreds of tens of thousands of dollars per game," he said.

Off-the-shelf shuffling machines were altered to read cards and determine which player had the best poker hand. Nocella said this information was relayed to an inside operator who would then give that information to the "quarterback" at the table, who would then secretly signal that information to others at the table.

Poker trip tray analyzers with cameras were used to read cards using a camera, and special contact lenses that could read pre-marked cards were utilized, Nocella said. An X-ray table was employed to read cards that were face down on the table, he added.

"This is only the tip of the iceberg for the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office," said Christopher Rea, FBI special agent in charge of the New York field office, emphasizing authorities will continue eyeing the La Cosa Nostra and its five families.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.