Justice Department expects to extend plea deals to 12 in NBA-Mafia rigged poker case
Federal prosecutors are expected to extend plea deals to a dozen defendants in the sprawling mob-related poker case that led to charges against a Basketball Hall of Famer and another former NBA player, according to a court document filed Tuesday.
The government did not say in the brief, filed before a status conference Wednesday, which of the defendants are poised to receive a plea deal.
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York charged more than 30 people in two illegal gambling cases last year: one involving the rigging of allegedly mob-backed poker games and the second using nonpublic information to bet on several NBA games.
Among those charged are members and associates of four major Mafia crime families, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and former NBA player Damon Jones.
Well-known former professional athletes, known as “face cards,” participated in the scheme and were used to lure wealthy victims into the rigged games, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said the “faces,” Billups and Jones, were part of the “cheating crews” and “received a portion of the proceeds of crime in exchange for their participation.”
On Tuesday, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Ramon Reyes, who is presiding over the high-stakes poker case, that the government “plans to extend formal plea agreements” to nearly half of the defendants charged in the case in the coming days, according to the court filing Tuesday.
The government has had “productive conversations with attorneys for at least nine other defendants” and is “reasonably optimistic” that it will reach additional plea agreements before the case goes to trial, the filing says.
All defendants were ordered to attend a status conference Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court.
Billups, a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, pleaded not guilty to money laundering and wire fraud charges last year.
Jones has pleaded not guilty to allegations of ill-gotten gains from rigged poker games and not guilty in the separate case, in which he is accused of providing inside information to sports bettors.
Rozier, who has not been charged in the poker case, has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the sports betting case.
Since November, the government has produced discovery materials on an ongoing basis, including evidence seized from seven electronic devices, more than 100,000 pages of financial and telephone records, and more than 800 pages of surveillance photographs, according to the document filed Tuesday.
The discovered documents included polar camera video from one of the locations of the alleged illegal poker games and several terabytes of data from electronic devices and iCloud accounts. according to the file.
