Court Corruption: How Organized Crime Infiltrated the NBA

Keith Allison. Terry Rozier (34583277386).jpg (Boston Celtics vs Washington Wizards, 12 May 2017) [photograph]. Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Yesterday, it was announced that the FBI had made several arrests, including some individuals in the league. Two well-known figures who were arrested are Portland Trail Blazers head coach, Chauncey Billups, and Terry Rozier, the point guard for Miami Heat. They were both placed on indefinite leave by the NBA.

Yesterday, the FBI held a press conference and released all available information regarding the case.

Kash Patel, who is the Director of the FBI, first stated that this has been a years-long investigation, stretching over 11 states, and they have arrested over 30 individuals involved. Over 10s of millions of dollars were involved. The crimes that were in this case were,

                  Wire fraud

                  Money laundering

                  Extortion

                  Robbery

                  Illegal gambling

Joseph Nocella, who is the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, came on the mic and disclosed the details in this case. There were three people in this case who overlapped into other cases. Damon Jones, Eric Ernest, and Shane Hennen. These crimes were also backed by Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese crime families. Nocella said to the people involved in this case that,

                  “Violating the law is a losing proposition, and you can bet on that.”

United States vs Ernest

People involved in this case: Eric Ernest, Damon Jones, Terry Rozier, Shane Hennen, DeNiro Laster, and Marves Fairley.

From December 2022 – March 2024, they would bet on inside information that was not known to the public on the athletes and teams. Information would include if a player would sit out for future games or if a player was intending to pull themselves out of the game. Nocella said that they would rely on Terry Rozier for information, and one time, they had threatened Jontay Porter, who was an NBA player on the Raptors at the time. Later, Porter was banned for life from the NBA in April of 2024 for a gambling scandal.

United States vs Aiello

People involved: James Aiello, Patrick Bosch, Jordon Grier, Anthony Vizzini, Steven Hernandez, Matthew Heller, and Chauncey Billups.

Going back to 2019, these people would run underground and illegal gambling games. They would use wireless cheating technology, like a shuffling machine that could predict what someone's hand was. They also had an X-Ray table that, when cards were faced down, was visible from under the table.

They would lure people to play in these illegal games, who they called “fish”. They were informed that they would be playing with former athletes. These former athletes who would be at the game would be called “face cards”. A face card mentioned in the conference was Chauncey Billups. What the fish didn’t know was that everyone at the table was in on the scam.

Jessica Tisch, who is the New York City Police Commissioner, stated that in March of 2023, Terry Rozier had planned to leave the game early with an injury. He had shared that information. Within 9 minutes of play, Rozier left the game. Over $200,000 was placed on his under, and tens of thousands of dollars were paid out.

Both cases remain under investigation.