A gavel and a block is pictured on the judge's bench in this illustration picture taken in the Sussex County Court of Chancery in Georgetown, Delaware, U.S., June 9, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
NEW YORK, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Pennsylvania federal prosecutors charged 20 peoplewith rigging bets on college and Chinese professional basketball games, according to an indictment unsealed on Thursday, the latest case to accuse athletes of cheating at legalized sports betting that has exploded in popularity in the U.S.
The 70-page indictment names more than a dozen former college and professional basketball players, as well as 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.
Federal 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 came up short of their projected margins of victory, or spreads.
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.
Those charges 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.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Nate Raymond; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Rod Nickel and Bill Berkrot)
