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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced the arrest of 34 people, including Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA guard and coach Damon Jones, as part of a widespread investigation into foul play.
FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed at a news conference in New York on Thursday that the investigation was tied to an investigation involving members of the La Cosa Nostra crime families that focused on an illegal gambling operation and sports-fixing operations that “spanned several years.”
“Not only did we crack the fraud that these criminals perpetrated on the big stage of the NBA, but we also entered and executed a justice system against La Cosa Nostra, which includes the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese crime families.”
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“It takes brave prosecutors to stand in front of you and say, we will not allow this kind of illegal activity to happen, not only at the national level of sport, but also where it hides in La Cosa Nostra,” Patel added. “And when these two collided, they committed a fraud that is historic in terms of not only money, but the scheme and the deception that they use to steal and cheat people out of money to include crypto fraud as well.”
Portland Trail Blazers NBA coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested Thursday for alleged involvement in foul play. Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and member of the NBA Hall of Fame, was arrested in connection with fraudulent illegal poker games tied to the Mafia, FBI Director Kash Patel said. Rozier and a former NBA player, Damon Jones, were arrested in a sports betting case, Patel said at a news conference in New York. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
The US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Joseph Nocella, clarified that two indictments were announced Thursday, both involving fraud. The first focused on sports betting and the second involved illegal gambling associated with “real poker games”.
“These defendants, who include former professional athletes, used high-tech cheating technology to steal millions of dollars from victims in underground poker games that were secretly fixed,” Nocella said. “The games in the New York area were supported by the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese crime families of La Cosa Nostra.”
The games were to have taken place in the Hamptons, Las Vegas, Miami and Manhattan. Nocella alleged that Billups and Jones were used as “face cards” to draw targeted victims, known as “fish,” who wanted to play alongside former professional athletes.
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“What the victims, the fish, didn’t know is that everyone else in the game of poker, from the dealer to the players, including the face cards, was in on the scam.”
Nocella said the crime families became involved as a result of having “existing control over non-rigged illegal poker games” in New York. Of the 34 indicted, 13 are alleged members and associates of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese crime families, including high-ranking “capos and soldiers of those families.”
La Cosa Nostra
According to the FBI, the La Cosa Nostra (LCN) crime families evolved from the Sicilian Mafia and are a New York-based network of five “families”: the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese. Its prevalence in the United States dates back to the 1920s.
Other cities with active LCN bands include Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago and the New England area.
Among the alleged crimes these organizations are said to be involved in, several notable cases have involved major sports scandals. In the United States, there is a long history of sports betting and match-fixing crimes that have been linked to organized crime, both directly and indirectly.
Boxing 1950s-1960s
American gangster and boxing manager Frank Carbo leaves the Beach Street police station in New York after receiving a 10-count indictment for irregularities in his professional boxing affairs on August 7, 1959. (Neal Boenzi/New York Times Co./Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Frank “Frankie” Carbo, a noted Lucchese soldier, and his longtime partner Frank “Blinky” Palermo were convicted of racketeering and conspiracy in 1961 after using threats and intimidation to control world welterweight champion Don Jordan. The case exposed mob control of the sport at the time, highlighted by Carbo and Palermo’s influence over fighters and promotions. The convictions were later upheld, and the case revealed deep corruption that decades later helped spur reform movements that culminated in the Professional Boxing Safety Act of 1996 and the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act of 2000.
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1951 college basketball point-shaving scandal
Two city college basketball stars, Al Roth (foreground) and Ed Warner (with hat) are escorted by detectives into the Elizabeth Street Station House to book charges of bribery. Police said the two Beaver stars, along with teammate Ed Roman and three other men, had confessed to their roles in a new basketball-fixing scandal that involved “throwing” several city games this season. (Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York uncovered a widespread point-shaving scheme involving players from several major programs, including City College of New York (CCNY) and Long Island University (LIU), who accepted bribes linked to organized crime gambling syndicates in New York. The investigation resulted in more than 30 indictments and led to prison terms for key figures and lifetime bans from the NBA for players involved. No specific crime family was ever formally charged in the case, but one of the main fixers, Salvatore T. Sollazzo, was reported to have known ties to New York’s underworld gambling network.
The Boston College men’s basketball point-shaving scandal
Rick Kuhn (#35) during the 1978-1979 Boston College men’s basketball season. (Joe Dennehy/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
One of the clearest examples of La Cosa Nostra’s reach in sports was the 1978-79 scandal involving Boston College and two associates of the Lucchese crime family. The two associates, Henry Hill and James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke, paid players thousands of dollars to manipulate game results for betting profits during that season with the help of Pittsburgh bookmaker Paul Mazzei. The FBI’s investigation and federal prosecution led to several convictions, including Boston College player Rick Kuhn, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Burke was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but Hill avoided direct prosecution for the scandal in exchange for his cooperation with authorities.
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Several other illegal sports betting and gambling operations linked to New York crime families have been prosecuted over the years. This year, five members and associates of the Lucchese crime family pleaded guilty to running an illegal online betting operation that grossed an estimated $1 million annually over several years of operation. In 2024, 17 people linked to the Gambino family were indicted for a sports gambling operation that handled more than $22 million in illegal bets, the office of the New York State Attorney General announced at the time.
