NBA’s Chauncey Billups pleads not guilty in rigged poker games case
The NBA Hall of Famer is accused of colluding with the mafia to rig illegal poker games, and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups entered a not guilty plea in a broad criminal case in Brooklyn federal court on Monday.
During a hearing for all 31 defendants in the case, the arraignment was conducted. Using the celebrity of professional athletes, prosecutors claim they planned a complex plot to get victims to card games and then use sophisticated technology to defraud them.
Marc Mukasey, Billups’ attorney, made the plea on his behalf before U.S. District Judge Ramon Reyes.
Billups is accused of money laundering conspiracy and fraud. Through his lawyers, he has refuted any wrongdoing.
Charges in the case also included accused members of the La Cosa Nostra organized crime groups in New York and former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones. Each of them entered a not guilty plea.
At the same time that legal sports betting has exploded in the United States in recent years, the case is connected to a criminal investigation into allegations of bet-rigging by professional sportsmen.
In October, the allegations against Billups were made public along with a companion case accusing Jones and Terry Rozier, the guard for the Miami Heat, of using insider information to rig NBA games from 2022 to 2024. Rozier and Jones entered not guilty pleas.
Prosecutors claim that Billups and other professional athletes lured victims into poker games against cheaters who used X-ray card tables and modified shuffle machines to figure out the cards the victims were holding.
According to prosecutors, the alleged plan began in 2019 and deceived victims of at least $7 million. The conspiracy members allegedly utilized extortion and violence to collect on victims’ debts.
Currently suspended, 49-year-old Billups is in his fifth season as Portland’s head coach. During his NBA career, he played for seven different teams. In 2004, he won a championship with the Detroit Pistons.
Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were accused with fraud and money laundering earlier this month by Brooklyn federal prosecutors for allegedly manipulating wagers on their pitches during Major League Baseball games.
They entered a not guilty plea and, via their lawyers, denied any wrongdoing.
