By PHILIP MARCELO, Related Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Portland Path Blazers coach, basketball Corridor of Famer and former Denver Nuggets participant Chauncey Billups pleaded not responsible on Monday to prices he profited from rigged poker video games involving a number of Mafia figures and at the very least one different former NBA participant.
Feds allege Chauncey Billups was ‘face card’ in high-stakes, Mafia-backed poker rip-off
The five-time All Star, who received a championship with the Detroit Pistons, was arraigned in a federal court docket in New York Metropolis on cash laundering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy prices, each of which carry a most punishment of 20 years in jail. A few of Billups’ co-defendants are additionally charged with operating an unlawful playing enterprise and interesting in an extortion conspiracy.
Chris Heywood, his legal professional, has stated Billups is a “man of integrity” and denies the costs.
“To imagine that Chauncey Billups did what the federal authorities is accusing him of is to imagine that he would danger his Corridor of Fame legacy, his repute and his freedom. He wouldn’t jeopardize these issues for something, not to mention a card recreation,” Heywood stated after Billups appeared in federal court docket in Portland, Oregon, when prosecutors first introduced the indictment on Oct. 23.
Billups wore a darkish grey go well with throughout the temporary arraignment and spoke solely to reply the decide’s sure or no questions. He has been free on bond since his preliminary court docket look in Oregon.
Billups was arguably essentially the most outstanding title amongst greater than 30 charged in final month’s sprawling federal takedown of unlawful playing operations linked to skilled sports activities. The opposite defendants had been additionally anticipated to seem within the Brooklyn court docket for Monday’s proceedings, wherein the decide, prosecutors and protection attorneys will possible talk about subsequent steps within the case.
Prosecutors say the 49-year-old Denver native, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Corridor of Fame final yr, was concerned in a scheme to rig Mafia-backed unlawful poker video games in Manhattan, Las Vegas, Miami and the Hamptons.
Former NBA participant and assistant coach Damon Jones was additionally nabbed in that alleged scheme, which prosecutors say utilized a spread of refined expertise that allowed the playing to be rigged, equivalent to altered card-shuffling machines, hidden cameras in poker chip trays, particular sun shades and even X-ray tools constructed into the desk to learn playing cards.
Jones was additionally charged together with Miami Warmth guard Terry Rozier in a separate scheme on the identical time that allowed gamblers to take advantage of insider details about gamers to win bets on NBA video games.
Prosecutors say the poker scheme Billups was concerned in defrauded victims of an estimated $7 million beginning in at the very least 2019.
They are saying he served as a star “face card” that might draw rich, unsuspecting gamers to the video games. Prosecutors stated throughout one recreation, the scheme’s organizers exchanged messages saying one of many victims “acted like he wished Chauncey to have his cash” as a result of he was “star struck.”
Prosecutors say Billups, who earned about $106 million from his taking part in days, obtained a portion of the ill-gotten positive factors. After one rigged recreation in October 2020, for instance, they are saying he was immediately wired $50,000.
The scheme organizers additionally needed to share a portion of their proceeds with the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno mob households for working inside the unlawful poker video games run by the New York felony enterprises, prosecutors stated.
Mafia members, in flip, helped commit violent acts, together with assault, extortion and theft, to make sure reimbursement of money owed and the continued success of the operation, they stated.
Billups was chosen because the third general choose within the 1997 draft by the Boston Celtics after starring in faculty for the Colorado Buffaloes. He performed 17 years within the NBA, with stints with the Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers.
However he’s maybe most beloved within the Motor Metropolis, the place he earned the nickname “Mr. Large Shot” for his knack of constructing clutch pictures.
Billups was named the NBA Finals MVP throughout the Pistons’ title run in 2004 and had his No. 1 jersey retired by the crew.
After retiring in 2014, Billups launched into a profession as a TV analyst earlier than pivoting to teaching.
He was employed as Portland’s coach in 2021 and signed a multiyear extension with the Path Blazers earlier this yr after the crew missed out on the playoffs for the fourth straight season in 2024. Billups beforehand served as an assistant coach on the Los Angeles Clippers.
After his arrest, he was positioned on unpaid depart and the Path Blazers named assistant coach and former NBA participant Tiago Splitter as interim coach.