Pistons legend and Hall of Fame point guard Chauncey Billups, now the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, was arrested early Thursday morning in Oregon in connection to a federal investigation into rigged poker games backed by the Mafia.
Heat guard Terry Rozier was also arrested as part of another investigation into illegal betting involving NBA games in which Rozier participated.
Billups and Rozier were among 34 arrests, including former Pistons guard Damon Jones, that stemmed from a years-long investigation covering 11 states and involving tens of millions of dollars, per FBI director Kash Patel.
Patel said the wide-ranging charges involve four Mafia families and organized crime networks and "mind-boggling" amounts of fraud.
Billups, a 2004 NBA champion with the Pistons who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year, is facing charges of money laundering and wire fraud as part of his alleged involvement in underground poker games that used advanced technology to steal more than $7 million from victims in the New York area.
The poker scheme, per U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr., lured victims known as "fish" into participating in the rigged games with the chance to play alongside famous former athletes like Billups who were known as "face cards."
Per ESPN, the games were rigged using sophisticated cheating technology, such as altered card shuffling machines, hidden cameras in poker chip trays, special sunglasses and X-ray equipment built into the table to read the cards of unsuspecting players. ... Once the "fish" lost, the Mafia used extortion and violence to make sure they paid their gambling debts.
One victim alone lost $1.8 million.
"Victims believed that they were sitting at a fair table," said New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. "Instead, they were cheated out of millions."
Billups, 49, has served as the Trail Blazers' coach since 2021 and signed a multi-year extension with the team in April.