NEW YORK, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Pennsylvania federal prosecutors on Thursday announced charges against 26 people for allegedly rigging bets on college and Chinese professional basketball games, the latest case to accuse athletes of cheating at legalized sports betting that has exploded in popularity in the U.S.
A 70-page indictment names more than a dozen former National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball players, a former NBA player and two sports-betting influencers who were previously charged in a sweeping NBA bet-rigging investigation. The charges include bribery in sporting contests, wire fraud and conspiracy.
"The criminal charges we have filed allege the criminal corruption of collegiate athletics through an international conspiracy of NCAA players, alumni, and professional bettors,” said U.S. Attorney David Metcalf of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, calling them "yet another blow to public confidence in the integrity of sport."
39 PLAYERS SAID TO BE INVOLVED
Prosecutors in Philadelphia allege the scheme began in 2022, when several of the defendants began recruiting and bribing Chinese Basketball Association players to intentionally underperform in games to ensure certain bets placed on their teams.
The scheme widened to U.S. college basketball during the 2023-2024 season, according to prosecutors, who said the defendants recruited players to accept bribes for helping to ensure their teams fell short of their projected margins of victory, or spreads.
Prosecutors said the scheme involved 39 players on more than 17 Division I college basketball teams, millions of dollars in wagers on fixed games and hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.
Prosecutors said the proliferation of legalized sports betting allowed the fixers to avoid detection by spreading their wagers around widely.
Two of the defendants, sports-betting influencers Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley, were charged in October alongside Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat and former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones with rigging bets on NBA games by placing wagers using insider information, including undisclosed player medical reports. All four men pleaded not guilty in that case.
Fairley's attorney Eric Siegle declined to comment on the new charges. Hennen's lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The charges against Rozier and Jones were unveiled in Brooklyn federal court alongside a related case against more than a dozen defendants, including Portland Trail Blazers coach and NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, who is accused of conspiring to cheat at illicit poker games using high-tech equipment. Billups and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors have also charged ClevelandGuardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz with rigging bets on their pitches during MLB games. Both men pleaded not guilty in the case.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Nate Raymond; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Rod Nickel and Bill Berkrot)
