Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups enters plea in rigged poker video games case

Portland Trail Blazers coach and basketball Hall of Famer 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 least one different former NBA participant.

The five-time All Star, who gained a championship with the Detroit Pistons, was arraigned in a federal courtroom in New York City on cash laundering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy prices, each of which carry a most punishment of 20 years in jail. Some of Billups’ co-defendants are additionally charged with operating an unlawful playing enterprise and interesting in an extortion conspiracy.

Chris Heywood, his lawyer, has mentioned Billups is a “man of integrity” and denies the costs.

“To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his Hall of Fame legacy, his reputation and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game,” Heywood mentioned after Billups appeared in federal courtroom in Portland, Oregon, when prosecutors first introduced the indictment on Oct. 23.

Billups wore a darkish grey go well with through the transient arraignment and spoke solely to reply the choose’s sure or no questions. He has been free on bond since his preliminary courtroom look in Oregon.

Billups was arguably probably the most distinguished identify amongst greater than 30 charged in final month’s sprawling federal takedown of unlawful playing operations linked to skilled sports activities. The different defendants had been additionally anticipated to look within the Brooklyn courtroom for Monday’s proceedings, during which the choose, prosecutors and protection legal professionals will possible focus on subsequent steps within the case.

Prosecutors say the 49-year-old Denver native, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall 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 variety of refined know-how 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 Heat 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 least 2019.

They say he served as a star “face card” that would draw rich, unsuspecting gamers to the video games. Prosecutors mentioned throughout one recreation, the scheme’s organizers exchanged messages saying one of many victims “acted like he wanted Chauncey to have his money” 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 good points. 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 throughout the unlawful poker video games run by the New York prison enterprises, prosecutors mentioned.

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 mentioned.

Billups was chosen because the third total decide within the 1997 draft by the Boston Celtics after starring in school 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.

But he’s maybe most beloved within the Motor City, the place he earned the nickname “Mr. Big Shot” for his knack of constructing clutch pictures.

Billups was named the NBA Finals MVP through the Pistons’ title run in 2004 and had his No. 1 jersey retired by the staff.

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 Trail Blazers earlier this yr after the staff 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 Trail Blazers named assistant coach and former NBA participant Tiago Splitter as interim coach.

— By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press