NBA Coach Billups Pleads Innocent To Mafia-linked Gambling
Billups, a previous Detroit Pistons star and NBA Hall of Famer, was arrested in connection with rigged illegal poker video games
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty Monday to declared involvement in Mafia-linked unlawful gaming schemes that rocked the NBA, prosecutors stated.
Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and NBA Hall of Famer, was arrested in connection with rigged prohibited poker games connected to Mafia criminal activity families.
He was targeted along with Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier in an FBI-led investigation into the rip-off that supposedly saw players cheated with using advanced techniques consisting of an X-ray table and barcoded card decks.
Dozens of other suspects were detained as part of the FBI probe.
Rozier and Billups were put on indefinite leave by the NBA after being apprehended in the betting examination.
Rozier and a previous NBA gamer and assistant coach, Damon Jones, were amongst six individuals apprehended in a different sports betting case.
Billups was arraigned on charges of conspiracy to dedicate wire scams and money laundering, to which he pleaded not guilty Monday, the Eastern District of New York prosecutors' workplace verified 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 short 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, district attorneys added.
Prosecutors say Billups's star assisted draw players to high-stakes video games that utilized "state-of-the-art unfaithful technology."
That tech consisted of that could read cards, hidden cameras and barcoded decks.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said last month he was "deeply disturbed" by the far-ranging FBI probe into unlawful gaming.
"My preliminary reaction was I was deeply disturbed," Silver stated in an interview with Amazon Prime.
"There's nothing more essential for the league and its fans than the stability of the competitors."
Silver expressed regret that the allegations had actually taken attention away from the start of the season.
"I apologize to our fans that we are all handling, now, this situation," Silver said.