NBA Coach Billups Pleads Innocent To Mafia-linked Gambling
Billups, a previous Detroit Pistons star and NBA Hall of Famer, was jailed in connection with rigged prohibited poker video games
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty Monday to declared participation in Mafia-linked prohibited gaming plans that rocked the NBA, prosecutors stated.
Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and NBA Hall of Famer, was apprehended in connection with rigged prohibited poker games connected to Mafia criminal offense families.
He was targeted together with Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier in an FBI-led examination into the scam that allegedly saw gamers cheated with using advanced techniques including an X-ray table and barcoded card decks.
Dozens of other suspects were arrested as part of the FBI probe.
Rozier and Billups were positioned on indefinite leave by the NBA after being jailed in the betting examination.
Rozier and a former NBA player and assistant coach, Damon Jones, were among six individuals apprehended in a different sports betting case.
Billups was on charges of conspiracy to dedicate wire scams and money laundering, to which he pleaded innocent Monday, the Eastern District of New york city prosecutors' office confirmed to AFP.
Billups was released on bond after at first appearing in federal court in Portland, Oregon, and was represented by lawyer Marc Mukasey at a brief hearing in a Brooklyn court on Monday.
Billups will now sign a $5 million bond in the Eastern District of New York for his pre-trial release, prosecutors included.
Prosecutors say Billups's star helped tempt players to high-stakes games that used "modern cheating technology."
That tech consisted of shuffling makers that might read cards, hidden video cameras and barcoded decks.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated last month he was "deeply disrupted" by the far-ranging FBI probe into prohibited betting.
"My preliminary response was I was deeply disrupted," Silver said in an interview with Amazon Prime.
"There's nothing more important for the league and its fans than the stability of the competitors."
Silver revealed regret that the allegations had taken attention away from the start of the season.
"I say sorry to our fans that we are all dealing with, now, this circumstance," Silver said.