{"id":17993,"date":"2025-10-23T20:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T14:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=650567"},"modified":"2025-10-23T20:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T14:35:10","slug":"fbi-arrests-chauncey-billups-and-miami-heats-terry-rozier-in-mafia-linked-federal-gambling-and-sports-rigging-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/nba\/fbi-arrests-chauncey-billups-and-miami-heats-terry-rozier-in-mafia-linked-federal-gambling-and-sports-rigging-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI arrests Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat\u2019s Terry Rozier in Mafia-linked federal gambling and sports rigging probe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a stunning development, the <strong>FBI announced on Thursday the arrest of 31 individuals<\/strong>, including <strong>Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups<\/strong> and <strong>Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier<\/strong>, as part of a <strong>massive federal investigation<\/strong> into an <strong>illegal gambling and sports rigging operation<\/strong> allegedly connected to <strong>four of the five most notorious Mafia families<\/strong> in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>FBI Director <strong>Kash Patel<\/strong> revealed that the multi-year probe spanned <strong>11 states<\/strong> and uncovered charges ranging from <strong>wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery, and illegal gambling<\/strong>. \u201cThe fraud is mind-boggling,\u201d Patel said at a press conference, adding that the investigation exposed <strong>tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent activity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>According to <strong>U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr.<\/strong>, the suspects used <strong>high-tech cheating technology<\/strong> to manipulate <strong>underground poker games<\/strong> backed by the <strong>Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese crime families<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Among those arrested was <strong>former Cleveland Cavaliers player Damon Jones<\/strong>, detained in Las Vegas, and reputed mob associate <strong>Tommy Gelardo<\/strong>, taken into custody Thursday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Rozier, 30, who joined the Heat in 2024 from the Charlotte Hornets, was <strong>arrested in Orlando, Florida<\/strong>, and is expected to <strong>appear in federal court later today<\/strong>. His attorney, <strong>Jim Trusty<\/strong>, criticized the manner of the arrest, saying:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThey wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk. Terry was cleared by the NBA, and these prosecutors revived that non-case. He looks forward to winning this fight.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Billups<\/strong>, 49, was reportedly <strong>arrested in Portland<\/strong>, where he resides, and will be <strong>arraigned later today<\/strong>, according to officials from the Eastern District of New York. The Trail Blazers had played a home game in Portland the previous night.<\/p>\n<p>The NBA legend, known as \u201c<strong>Mr. Big Shot<\/strong>\u201d for his clutch performances during Detroit\u2019s 2004 championship run, transitioned into coaching in 2021 after a Hall of Fame playing career.<\/p>\n<p>This high-profile case comes months after <strong>former NBA star Gilbert Arenas<\/strong> was indicted in a separate illegal poker case and amid the league\u2019s growing scrutiny of gambling-related activities. In 2024, <strong>Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter<\/strong> was banned for life for betting on NBA games and leaking insider information to gamblers.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI stated that <strong>more arrests are possible<\/strong>, with several organized crime figures expected to face additional charges in <strong>two separate gambling-related cases<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Miami Heat<\/strong> and <strong>Portland Trail Blazers<\/strong> have not yet issued statements on the arrests.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Disclaimer:<\/strong> This article is based on official reports and statements made by law enforcement authorities. All individuals named are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a stunning development, the FBI announced on Thursday the arrest of 31 individuals, including Portland Trail Blazers head coach\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":38732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}