FBI Director Kash Patel announced Thursday that 31 people, including several current and former NBA figures, were arrested as part of a sweeping federal investigation into organized gambling operations linked to the La Cosa Nostra crime families.
Among those arrested were Portland Trail Blazers head coach and Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones. The FBI said the investigation, Operation Zhen Diagram, uncovered a nationwide gambling ring that defrauded victims of millions of dollars through poker schemes, sports betting manipulation, and cryptocurrency laundering.
“As you now know, individuals such as Chauncey Billups, Damon Jones, and Terry Rozier were taken into custody today — former, current NBA players and coaches,” Patel said. “What you don’t know is that this is an illegal gambling operation and sports rigging operation that spanned the course of years. The FBI led a coordinated take-down across 11 states to arrest over 30 individuals today responsible for this case, which is very much ongoing.”
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Federal prosecutors announced two major indictments shortly after 10 a.m. in New York, one charging six people with using insider NBA information in a sports betting conspiracy, and another charging 31 defendants, including former athletes, with running rigged poker games tied to the Gambino and Genovese crime families. Three men, Damon Jones, Eric Earnest, and Shane Henning, were charged in both cases.
The bureau’s evidence included over 3,000 recorded phone calls and meetings with alleged conspirators. Undercover agents, Patel said, participated in a rigged poker game that used cheating devices, such as altered shuffling machines, to expose the ring’s methods.
“The fraud is mind-boggling,” Patel said. “It’s not hundreds of dollars, it’s not thousands of dollars, it’s not tens of thousands of dollars. It’s not even millions of dollars. We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation, and we could not have done it without our interagency partners that are before us today.”
Rozier’s arrest was tied to allegations of manipulating in-game statistics to benefit betting operations, while Billups was accused of participating in illicit poker events connected to the criminal network. Jones allegedly passed insider information to co-conspirators while working as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers.
During the press conference, one of the most striking allegations against Rozier came from New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch, who said he allegedly faked an injury on March 23, 2023 when he played for the Charlotte Hornets that allowed in-the-know associates to receive more than $200,000 in wages on his “under” statistics.
“Using that information, members of the group placed more than $200,000 in wagers on his ‘under’ statistics,” Tisch said. “Rozier exited the game after just nine minutes, and those bets paid out, generating tens of thousands of dollars in profit. The proceeds were later delivered to his home, where the group counted their cash. As the NBA season tips off, his career is already benched, not for injury, but for integrity.”
Tisch also said that defendants being charged in the alleged poker scheme used elaborate technologies to execute their scams, such as custom card shuffling machines that could reach the order of cards, and used hidden cameras built into light fixtures. The scheme also included some “acts of violence,” including robbery of a person at gunpoint to obtain that rigged shuffling machine.
The FBI said the gambling operation overlapped with a parallel investigation, dubbed Operation Nothing But Bet, targeting fixed NCAA basketball games. Both inquiries have reportedly exposed ties between professional athletes and long-standing organized crime entities, and the inquiries began prior to President Donald Trump’s return to office.
The FBI said the gambling operation overlapped with a parallel investigation, dubbed Operation Nothing But Bet, targeting fixed NCAA basketball games. Both inquiries have reportedly exposed ties between professional athletes and long-standing organized crime entities.
Rozier’s attorney, James Trusty of Ifrah Law PLLC, condemned the arrest in a statement to the Washington Examiner, calling it a “photo op” orchestrated to embarrass his client.
“They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk,” Trusty said. “They appear to be taking the word of spectacularly in-credible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case. Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”
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Rozier did not play in the Miami Heat’s game against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night, while Billups was on the bench for the Trail Blazers’ matchup with the Minnesota Timberwolves shortly before his arrest. Billups and Rozier are expected to make their first appearances in federal court in Portland and Orlando, respectively, on Thursday afternoon.
Federal officials said proceeds from the illegal betting operation were laundered through shell companies and converted to cryptocurrency to avoid detection. The FBI said the investigation remains ongoing and declined to comment on whether more arrests are expected.
