Current and former NBA players and members of four New York Mafia families face charges in two major investigations.
The schemes allegedly involved rigged high-stakes poker games using high-tech cheating devices and insider sports betting in the NBA.
A years-long investigation by multiple agencies used evidence like text messages, bank records, and surveillance footage.
One investigation spanned nine states, with illegal poker games allegedly taking place in glamorous locations like the Hamptons, Las Vegas, Miami, and Manhattan. A second looked at alleged betting based on insider information and faked injuries involving stars of the NBA.
There were high-tech machines to rig poker games, prosecutors say, in a move straight out of Hollywood. X-ray tables. Special sunglasses and contact lenses. A card dealing machine that gave away the hands of other players.
Then there were the high-profile names. Current and former NBA players and four of the five infamous New York Mafia families.
The criminal charges over alleged illegal betting and gambling that rocked the NBA in late October arose out of a years-long investigation involving multiple federal and local agencies that pulled together phone and bank records, surveillance footage, and witness testimony.
Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former Cleveland Cavaliers player Damon Jones were charged with playing a role in a ‘brazen’ scheme of insider sports betting. Jones and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups were charged with helping to fleece victims of rigged illegal poker games. Members of four New York Mafia crime families were also charged with assisting in the rigged games.
‘The fraud is mind boggling,’ FBI Director Kash Patel said at news conference in October. ‘We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation.’
Investigators within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security uncovered the alleged poker scheme more than four years ago, according to Ricky J. Patel, the special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in New York. He said in a statement that his Homeland Security chapter worked with a Newark, New Jersey chapter, the FBI, the New York Waterfront Commission, and the New York Police Department to expose crimes that defrauded victims out of at least $7 million.
Some of the alleged co-conspirators in the scheme were previously charged, according to New York federal prosecutor Joseph Nocella Jr., who spoke at an Oct. 23 news conference. That includes former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, who pleaded guilty in July of 2024 to wire fraud conspiracy and was subsequently banned from the NBA for life. His sentencing is scheduled for December.
Those prior charges now appear to be part of the wider cases that investigators were continuing to build.
‘This complex scheme was so far reaching that it included members from four of the organized crime families,’ said New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch at the Oct. 23 news conference.
As early as 2019, multiple defendants engaged in a series of schemes to use cheating technology – including rigged shuffling machines and X-ray readers – to rig illegal poker games, according to law enforcement. By December 2022, defendants were allegedly also using non-public information about upcoming NBA games to place fraudulent sports bets and launder the proceeds.
Law enforcement has made no promises that its investigations will end here.
‘We will continue following the money to ensure gambling operations of all kinds stay within the law and bring to justice those who take advantage of innocent victims,’ the FBI director said in a statement.
In a statement to USA TODAY, Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, said his legal team has represented the Miami Heat player for over a year, telling prosecutors there should be ‘an open line of communication.’ Yet FBI agents suddenly arrested him, rather than letting him self surrender, Trusty said.
‘They appear to be taking the word of spectacularly in-credible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing,’ Trusty said. ‘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.
Billups’ lawyer, Chris Heywood, said in a statement that anyone who knows his client ‘knows he is a man of integrity; men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others.’
‘Chauncey Billups has never backed down. He does not plan to do so now. He will fight these allegations with the same tenacity that marked his 28-year career. We look forward to our day in court,’ Heywood said.
USA TODAY wasn’t able to reach Jones for comment.
Here’s a look at investigative techniques law enforcement used and the types of evidence it pulled together:
Images obtained from phones
While a legitimate poker game can involve machines used to shuffle cards randomly before they’re dealt, the alleged rigged games used altered shuffling machines with hidden technology to read all the cards in a deck. Because cards were dealt to the players at the table in a specific order for each hand, the machines could determine which player had the winning hand, according to the allegations.
An offsite member of the poker conspiracy would get the information transmitted from the machines, and then send the information to the cell phone of a player at the table, who then secretly signaled the information to other co-conspirators playing the game. Victims would sometimes lose tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time, authorities say.
Co-conspirators also used a poker chip tray that read cards using hidden cameras, an X-ray table that could read cards that were face down, and special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read pre-marked cards.
Investigators obtained images of at least some of the alleged cheating technology, which they could one day seek to show to a jury, according to court documents. The images were obtained from multiple defendants’ iCloud accounts. The images include a photo of a card shuffler that had been taken apart.
The images also include a photo of the computer program that allegedly used information transmitted by a rigged shuffling machine, and investigators also obtained an image of an X-ray poker table reading cards that were placed down.
At a trial, prosecutors have the burden to prove every part of their case, including that various defendants in the rigged poker games case conspired to commit fraud. Evidence of rigging technology could go a long way to proving the games were fraudulent.
Text messages
Investigators have also amassed an array of text messages that they say help to show the criminal schemes they’ve alleged in the indictments. In one message from 2023, for instance, former NBA player Damon Jones was allegedly asking another defendant for a $10,000 advance payment for a rigged poker game in East Hampton, New York.
The other defendant allegedly sent Jones $2,500 that same day over Zelle, a digital payment service.
Another phone record that investigators said they got from a defendant’s iCloud account allegedly shows a member of the poker conspiracy confirming that his game was backed by the Gambino crime family:
In one text message, a defendant who is charged with conspiring to engage in wire fraud, money laundering and extortion allegedly admitted to punching an unnamed poker player for not paying a gambling debt. ‘I punched somebody in the face the other day, (sh**) unraveling quick,’ he allegedly admitted in a text sent Nov. 9. 2022:
Other phone records allegedly helped investigators show how multiple defendants extorted another man to get him to pay a $10,000 poker debt. The records include text messages referring to giving the man ‘a little nudge’ through a ‘small but big threat,’ and a text message allegedly suggesting one defendant invoke his connections with organized crime to secure the payment, according to the records.
In the indictment charging people with illegal sports betting activity, Damon Jones allegedly shared non-public information that a Lakers player was injured and his performance at a Jan. 15, 2024 game would likely be limited. When that player ended up performing well after all, Jones allegedly reaffirmed to another defendant through a text message that he had gotten credible, non-public information before the game, the records show.
Phone voice recording
The government also looked into phone voice recordings, according to details in a court filing that recommends a defendant in the poker game case not be released on bail. The filing points to an alleged June 18, 2022 voice note recording in which the defendant, Ammar Awawdeh, says he sent someone else a picture of him holding his gun along with the message that he was going to shoot the person in the kneecaps.
‘This threat raises a substantial concern that AWAWDEH has access to firearms and would be a danger to the community and attempt to obstruct justice if released on bail,’ the government told the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Surveillance by May 2023
Law enforcement also appear to have surveilled members of the alleged rigged poker scheme. One court filing shows photographs law enforcement took of men who allegedly provided security for illegal poker games on May 31, 2023 and Aug. 16, 2023 at 147 Lexington Ave. in New York, one of the alleged locations for rigged poker games.
Surveillance video from outside the building also allegedly shows an unnamed extortion victim arriving on Oct. 18. 2023 in a black Range Rover and handing something to a woman outside the location. That’s the same day a check from the victim was dated, in which he allegedly paid half his poker debt, according to the court records.
Pole camera footage and license plate reader data
Investigators also accuse five defendants of plotting to steal a rigged shuffling machine. Part of the case they built for the allegation involves text messages, but they also turned to pole camera footage and information obtained with a license plate reader.
According to the allegations, the robbery took place on Sept. 7, 2023, in New York, when an unnamed victim was in a car with two defendants. Two additional people who were recruited by a third defendant approached the car, brandished a gun, and demanded the ‘box’ from the victim, who turned it over.
The license plate reader information showed that cars registered to two defendants participated in the robbery, according to court filings. Pole camera footage from the early morning hours of that day allegedly shows a defendant’s car arriving near a gaming location, just as two other defendants texted each other about the arrival.
Bank records
Investigators also say they have obtained bank records that help prove defendants engaged in money laundering. For example, bank records allegedly show a defendant on Aug. 4, 2023 sending $100,000 to another defendant’s front company in exchange for cash. The front company holder allegedly indicated in text messages that the sender would get $97,000 in cash from an intermediary, the court records show.
Witness testimony
The court filings from the Justice Department aren’t explicit about what kind of witness accounts investigators have already obtained. But they make clear that witness testimony is part of how investigators put together their case. In an Oct. 23, 2025 court filing, they say testimony along with electronic evidence and records shows ‘the weight of the evidence against each defendant is extremely strong.’
It’s possible law enforcement obtained testimony from several alleged victims across the two cases. In the Oct. 23 court filing, prosecutors refer to seven individuals – including alleged victims of robbery and extortion – as ‘John Does.’
It’s unclear if law enforcement has obtained cooperation from people who may have contributed to the alleged criminal schemes. In the indictment dealing with alleged illegal sports betting, the grand jury listed nine unnamed co-conspirators, including an alleged relative of Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and a former player and current NBA coach.