Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups , Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Damon Jones are among 34 people charged in connection with schemes involving illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the Mafia, authorities said on Thursday.
Rozier is accused in participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information, officials said. Billups is charged in a separate indictment alleging a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games, authorities said.
FBI Director Kash Patel and other law enforcement officials said the multiple charges involve four of the five leading mafia families and organized crime networks, and “mind-boggling” amounts of fraud. Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, accused th