NBA Coach Billups Pleads Not Guilty To Mafia-linked Gambling
Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and NBA Hall of Famer, was apprehended in connection with rigged prohibited poker video games
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups pleaded innocent Monday to alleged participation in Mafia-linked unlawful gambling schemes that rocked the NBA, prosecutors said.
Billups, a previous Detroit Pistons star and NBA Hall of Famer, was jailed in connection with rigged unlawful poker games connected to Mafia crime families.
He was targeted together with Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier in an FBI-led examination into the rip-off that supposedly saw gamers cheated with the usage of advanced techniques including an X-ray table and barcoded card decks.
Dozens of other suspects were jailed as part of the FBI probe.
Rozier and Billups were put on indefinite leave by the NBA after being arrested in the gaming investigation.
Rozier and a previous NBA gamer and assistant coach, Damon Jones, were amongst six individuals apprehended in a separate sports betting case.
Billups was prosecuted on of conspiracy to devote wire scams and money laundering, to which he pleaded innocent Monday, the Eastern District of New york city district attorneys' workplace confirmed to AFP.
Billups was launched 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 celeb helped entice players to high-stakes games that used "modern unfaithful technology."
That tech consisted of shuffling devices that might read cards, concealed video cameras and barcoded decks.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated last month he was "deeply disturbed" by the far-ranging FBI probe into illegal betting.
"My preliminary reaction was I was deeply disturbed," Silver stated in an interview with Amazon Prime.
"There's nothing more vital for the league and its fans than the stability of the competitors."
Silver expressed remorse that the accusations had taken attention far from the start of the season.
"I ask forgiveness to our fans that we are all handling, now, this scenario," Silver stated.