Federal agents have arrested an NBA Hall of Famer on allegations that he was part of a gambling operation with ties to the mafia—the same night a current NBA player was arrested on similar charges.
Chauncey Billups, part of the 2024 Hall of Fame class, was arrested in Oregon on Wednesday night after the Portland Trail Blazers, a team he coaches, lost their NBA opener.
FBI Director Kash Patel said 30 people were arrested across 11 states in the scheme.
“This is an illegal gambling operation and sports-rigging operation that spanned the course of years,” he said
Billups, 49, was arrested in connection with an “illegal poker operation tied to the Mafia,” law enforcement sources told ABC News. Patel later said crime families and those with ties to the NBA worked in tandem to steal tens of millions of dollars over the course of years.
“When these two collided together, they perpetrated a fraud that is historic in terms of not just money, but the scheme and the deceit that they utilized to steal and swindle people for money,” the FBI director said.
Among the arrested is current Miami Heat player Terry Rozier, who was taken into custody in Orlando. The arrest was also made after the Heat lost their season opener. He did not feature in the game due to a hamstring injury.
Rozier’s arrest is tied to unusual activity as a player tied to sports gambling. The 31-year-old was previously probed on allegations that he manipulated his performance to benefit sports gamblers during his time with the Charlotte Hornets in 2023.
NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said players, including Rozier, “altered their performance or took themselves out of games to make sure that those bets paid out.”
Tisch alleged that Rozier signaled to gamblers to wager on him having a poor performance during a game in 2023.
“Rozier exited the game after just nine minutes, and those bets paid out, generating tens of thousands of dollars in profit,” she said. “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.”
Clips of Rozier performing poorly—rumored to have possibly been on purpose—went viral on social media after his arrest.
“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, theft, and robbery across a multi-year investigation.”
Billups, a star guard who played for eight NBA teams but enjoyed the most success with the Detroit Pistons, was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame last year. He made $106 million in his salary alone as a player, and had netted millions as the Trail Blazers coach for five seasons—earning an extension through the 2028-29 season in April.
Billups is accused of being part of an illegal poker operation run by crime families. U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said the scheme used rigged shuffling machines to give the house an unfair advantage. He alleged that the operation used X-ray technology that could read cards lying face down on the table.
The scheme allegedly began in 2019 with secret poker nights in the Hamptons, Manhattan, Las Vegas, and Miami. Officials said some victims lost “millions,” and that those who refused to pay were subjected to violence by mobsters.
Unlike Rozier, Billups’ name had not previously been linked to any allegations of illegal gambling. Both men are due in federal court later Thursday.
