WATCH: Heat’s Rozier and Trail Blazers among dozens charged in Mafia-backed sports betting and poker schemes

NEW YORK (AP) — The Portland Trail Blazers’ head coach and a Miami Heat player were arrested Thursday along with more than 30 other people in a takedown of two sprawling gambling operations that authorities said leaked inside information about NBA athletes and rigged poker games backed by Mafia families.

Watch FBI Director Kash Patel’s news briefing in the video player above.

Portland coach Chauncey Billups has been accused of participating in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games linked to the La Cosa Nostra organized crime families that bilked unsuspecting gamblers out of at least $7 million. Heat guard Terry Rozier was accused in a separate scheme of exploiting private information about players to win bets on NBA games.

The two indictments unsealed in New York create a huge cloud for the NBA — which opened its season this week — and show how certain types of bets are vulnerable to widespread fraud in the growing multibillion-dollar legal sports betting industry. Joseph Nocella, the top federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York, called the crime “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legal in the United States.”

“My message to the defendants arrested today is: Your winning streak is over,” Nocella said. “You’re out of luck.”

Both men face charges of money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud. Also charged is assistant coach and former NBA player Damon Jones, who is accused of participating in both schemes.

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“The scam is mind-boggling,” FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters. “We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud, theft and theft across a multi-year investigation.”

However, the alleged fraud pales in comparison to the riches earned by athletes on the field. Billups, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year, earned about $106 million in earnings during his 17-year career. Rozier grossed about $160 million at his stops in Boston, Miami and Charlotte.

Billups and Rozier have been placed on leave from their teams, according to the NBA, which said it is cooperating with authorities.

The league said in a statement: “We take these allegations very seriously, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”

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Hours after his arrest, Rozier appeared in federal court in Orlando, Florida, wearing a Charlotte Hornets jersey, handcuffs and handcuffs. Billups appeared before a judge in Portland, Oregon. An order was issued to release the two men from custody under certain conditions. Billups’ attorney, Chris Heywood, declined to comment after the hearing.

Jim Trusty, Rozier’s attorney, said in a statement that his client is “not a gambler” and is “looking forward to winning this fight.” Trusty criticized authorities for not allowing his client to surrender on his own and accused officials of wanting “the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with the career of a criminal.”

Messages were left Thursday at a phone number and email address listed in public records for Jones.

Nearly 20 other defendants appeared in federal court in Brooklyn, where most pleaded not guilty. Many people accused of violent crimes or with long criminal records and ties to organized crime were arrested.

Officials say Mafia families profited from gambling schemes

The poker scheme successfully lured unwitting players into rigged games with the opportunity to compete against former professional basketball players like Billups and Jones. The games were fixed using sophisticated cheating technology, such as modified card shuffling machines, hidden cameras in poker chip chips, special sunglasses, and even X-ray equipment built into the table to read cards, authorities allege.

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The scheme often took advantage of illegal poker games run by New York crime families that required them to share a portion of their proceeds with the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno crime families, according to court papers. Members of those families, in turn, also helped commit acts of violence, including assault, extortion and robbery, to ensure the debts were paid and the operation continued to succeed, officials said in court documents.

Accusing athletes of leaving matches early

In the sports betting scheme, Rozier and other defendants were accused of accessing private information from NBA players or coaches that could affect a player’s performance and giving that information to others so they could bet. Players sometimes alter their performance or take themselves out of games early to manipulate prop bets — a type of betting that allows gamblers to bet on whether a player will exceed a certain statistic, such as total number of points, rebounds or assists, according to the indictment.

In one case, Rozier, while playing for the Charlotte Hornets in 2023, told people he was planning to leave the game early due to a supposed injury, allowing gamblers to place bets that earned them tens of thousands of dollars, authorities said. That game against the New Orleans Pelicans raised eyebrows at the time. Rozier played the first 9 minutes and 36 seconds of the game before leaving with a foot problem. He did not play again that season.

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Posts still online from March 23, 2023 show that some bettors were angry at sportsbooks that evening when it became clear that Rozier would not return to the game after the first quarter, with many of them taking to social media to say something “suspicious” had happened regarding prop bets involving his stats that night.

The indictments contain descriptions of several unnamed NBA players whose injury status and availability for certain games were a source of betting activity. These players were not accused of any wrongdoing, and there is no indication that they were aware of what was said about their situation in those matches.

These players include LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Damian Lillard. Their identities are clear based on a review of corresponding injury reports surrounding the games mentioned in the indictment. The indictments show that some of the defendants shared information about the availability of these players for a game on March 24, 2023, involving the Portland Trail Blazers, and two games in 2023 and 2024 involving the Los Angeles Lakers.

The NBA had previously investigated Rozier. He was in uniform when the Heat played the Magic on Wednesday in Orlando, Florida, in the season opener for both teams, though he did not play in the game.

Durkin Richer reported from Washington, and Reynolds reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon; David Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Larry Lugg in Detroit; Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida; Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, contributed to this report.