The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced the arrest of 34 individuals, including Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA guard and coach Damon Jones, as part of a widespread investigation into an illegal gambling scheme.

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed at a news conference in New York on Thursday that the investigation was tied to a probe involving members of the La Cosa Nostra crime families focused on an illegal gambling operation and sports-rigging operations that “spanned the course of years.”

“Not only did we crack into the fraud that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage of the NBA, but we also entered and executed a system of justice against La Cosa Nostra to include the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese crime families.”

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“It takes courageous prosecutors to stand before you and say, we will not allow this kind of illicit activity to happen, not only at the national sporting level, but also where it hides in La Cosa Nostra,” Patel added. “And when these two collided together, they perpetrated a fraud that is historic in terms of not just money, but the scheme and the deceit that they utilize to steal and swindle people from money to include crypto fraud.”

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella clarified that two indictments were announced Thursday, both involving fraud. The first focused on sports betting, and the second involved illegal gambling connected to “rigged poker games.”

“These defendants, which include former professional athletes, used high-tech cheating technology to steal millions of dollars from victims in underground poker games that were secretly fixed,” Nocella said. “The games in the New York area were backed by the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese crime families of La Cosa Nostra.”

The games were alleged to have taken place in the Hamptons, Las Vegas, Miami, and Manhattan. Nocella alleged that Billups and Jones were used as “face cards” to draw in targeted victims, known as “fish,” looking to play alongside former professional athletes.

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“What the victims, the fish, didn’t know is that everybody else at the poker game, from the dealer to the players, including the face cards, were in on the scam.”

Nocella said the crime families became involved as a result of having “preexisting control over non-rigged illegal poker games” in New York. Of the 34 defendants, 13 are alleged members and associates of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese crime families, including high-ranking “capos and soldiers from these families.”

La Cosa Nostra

According to the FBI, the La Cosa Nostra (LCN) crime families evolved from the Sicilian Mafia and are a New York-based network consisting of five “families”: Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese. Its prevalence in the United States dates back to the 1920s.

Other cities with active LCN ties include Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago, and the New England area.

Among the alleged crimes these organizations are said to be involved in, several notable cases have involved major sports scandals. In the United States, there is a long history of sports betting and match-fixing crimes that have been tied to organized crime, both directly and indirectly. 

Boxing 1950s-1960s

American gangster and boxing manager Frank Carbo leaving the Beach Street police station in New York after receiving a 10-point indictment over irregularities in his professional boxing affairs on Aug. 7, 1959.    (Neal Boenzi/New York Times Co./Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Frank “Frankie” Carbo, a known Lucchese soldier, and his longtime partner Frank “Blinky” Palermo were convicted in 1961 of extortion and conspiracy after using threats and intimidation to control world welterweight champion Don Jordan. The case exposed the mob’s control over the sport at the time, highlighted by Carbo and Palermo’s influence over fighters and promotions. The convictions were later upheld, and the case exposed deep corruption that, decades later, helped spur reform movements culminating in the Professional Boxing Safety Act of 1996 and the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act of 2000.

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1951 college basketball point-shaving scandal

Two city college basketball stars, Al Roth (foreground) and Ed Warner (with hat) are escorted by detectives into the Elizabeth Street Station House for booking on charges of bribery. Police said that the two Beaver stars, along with teammate Ed Roman and three other men, had confessed their parts in a new basketball fix scandal, involving the “throwing” of several city games this season.  (Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York uncovered a widespread point-shaving scheme involving players from several major programs, including City College of New York (CCNY) and Long Island University (LIU), who accepted bribes connected to organized crime gambling syndicates in New York. The investigation resulted in more than 30 indictments and led to prison time for key figures and lifetime bans from the NBA for players involved. No specific crime family was ever formally charged in the case, but one of the main fixers, Salvatore T. Sollazzo, was reported to have known ties to New York’s underworld gambling network.

Boston College men’s basketball point-shaving scandal

Rick Kuhn (#35) during Boston College men’s basketball’s 1978-1979 season.  (Joe Dennehy/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

One of the clearest examples of La Cosa Nostra’s reach in sports was the 1978-79 scandal involving Boston College and two associates of the Lucchese crime family. The two associates, Henry Hill and James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke, paid players thousands of dollars to manipulate game scores for betting profits during that season with the help of Pittsburgh bookmaker Paul Mazzei. The FBI’s investigation and federal prosecution led to multiple convictions, including Boston College player Rick Kuhn, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Burke was sentenced to 12 years, but Hill avoided direct prosecution for the scandal in exchange for his cooperation with authorities.

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Several other illegal sports betting and gambling operations linked to crime families in New York have been prosecuted over the years. This year, five members and associates of the Lucchese crime family pleaded guilty to running an illegal online betting operation that collected an estimated $1 million annually over several years of operation. In 2024, 17 individuals tied to the Gambino family were indicted for a sports gambling operation that handled over $22 million in illegal bets, the Office of the New York State Attorney General announced at the time.

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