Rozier and Billups may face fallout from NBA FBI investigation
Terry Rozier and Chaucey Billups may never recover from the aftermath of NBA FBI investigation
- Former NBA star and current Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups has been arrested in connection with an illegal poker scheme.
- Prosecutors say Billups was recruited to lure wealthy victims into rigged games, but it’s unclear whether Billups knew of his Mafia connections.
- According to court documents, Billups was an active participant in using Signal to commit fraud and receive $50,000 in wire transfers.
- Billups was charged with wire fraud and money laundering and was placed on unpaid leave by the NBA.
Chauncey Billups played 17 seasons in the NBA and earned one of the cruelest nicknames of his generation.
A five-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA selection, Billups made so many clutch baskets during his time that people began to refer to him as “Mr. Big Shot.” In 2021, he became the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, overseeing a team that began to show modest improvement over the past few seasons.
So how does someone like Billups, an NBA champion and Hall of Famer with lifetime earnings of over $105 million, end up embroiled in an illegal poker scandal? So, a Mafia-linked scheme, one that defrauded unsuspecting victims of at least $7.15 million?
Prosecutors and organized crime experts say it all starts with influence and recruitment.
But despite the explosive revelation that the Bonano-Gambino-Genovese crime family allegedly offered protection in a rigged poker game in New York, a closer reading of the indictment and detention warrant reveals that it is unclear whether Billups was aware of any alleged Mafia connections.
According to these documents, Billups participated in at least two poker games. The first took place around April 2019 in Las Vegas, and the second took place in late October 2020 at an undisclosed location.
Court documents are careful to specify only that the Mafia “supported the game in the New York area,” took a cut for security, and collected “debts owed from the game.”
Additionally, none of the indicted individuals named along with Billups at the April 2019 fight in Las Vegas are listed as members or associates of the three New York families.
There is no mention in either document of other organized crime organizations offering similar protections to the Las Vegas games Billups is allegedly involved with. This does not necessarily mean that such an arrangement did not exist, just that it was not outlined in the document.
To that end, Professor Federico Varese, senior research fellow at Oxford University’s Nuffield College and author of Mafia Life, believes that operations such as the one outlined in the indictment require protection wherever the match is being played.
“For me, it’s appealing because there’s a very clear division of roles,” Varese told USA TODAY Sports. “Everyone had a job, that’s very clear. This is like a textbook for the mafia to do what it does best: protect, coerce and resolve conflicts.
“This is classic stuff from the 1930s and ’50s. They still have the ability to control, to use violence, to instill fear just by the power of their reputation.”
But all this doesn’t answer another important question, and perhaps the most pressing: how did Billups allegedly become involved in this scheme?
“He’s become a star!”
Billups was indicted on October 23 in Portland on charges of wire fraud and money laundering, and the NBA placed him on immediate unpaid leave.
Prosecutors allege he was part of a team of poker players who cheated using fraudulent shuffle machines and “face cards,” a system that relays signals to players participating in the alleged operation.
“Why Chauncey Billups more than anyone else?” Virginia Commonwealth University criminology professor Dr. Jay Albanese told USA TODAY Sports. “You might expect this to happen to a young player who is out of control, a player who has a lot of strings attached.
“There are a few guys that I think should be on the list, but Billups wasn’t on my list. So I think that’s the concern right now.”
Details regarding the origins of Billups’ alleged involvement remain unclear. However, court documents reveal that Robert L. Stroud, a 67-year-old Louisville man, allegedly recruited fellow former NBA player Damon Jones into the operation.
“Criminals use celebrities like honey to bring in victims,” Frederick Mertens, former executive director of the Pennsylvania State Crime Commission, told USA TODAY Sports.
“The bottom line is that poker players and gamblers love to be around stars,” Martens said.
Prosecutors also share this opinion. The warrant details a match in Las Vegas in April 2019 and includes text messages between Stroud and Sophia Way, another defendant. Prosecutors said the messages occurred during a rigged game where Billups discussed things like the draw he earned as a Hall of Famer.
“The one guy at the end was acting like he wanted to get Chauncey’s money!” Stroud wrote in one of the detention papers. “He was a star player!”
Prosecutors allege this is what led Billups and Jones to the scheme.
“Defendant Stroud recruited former professional athletes, including Defendants Billups and Jones, into a conspiracy to lure wealthy victims to matches,” the letter said. “For their ‘face cards’ and their role as members of the fraud team, Stroud paid them a portion of the proceeds of crime.”
The letter further alleges that Stroud transferred $50,000 to Way through his company Lil Robbie Productions LLC after an October 2020 match at an undisclosed location. Mr. Way then transferred $50,000 directly to Mr. Billups.
In another series of texts, Stroud and Way discuss the need to intentionally lose certain hands to avoid suspicions of foul play after Billups and another alleged defendant “landed two gut shots on the river against the same man.” The two hands held a pot of at least $30,000, according to the messages.
To avoid being discovered, Mr. Way suggested having another player at the table participate in the scam, with Billups and other “face cards” intentionally losing to new players to deflect suspicion.
“Sounds like a plan,” Stroud replied, according to the letter.
“Okay, perfect,” Way concluded. “They already know all the signals…they just have to tell us which ones are which.”
This exchange strongly suggests that prosecutors believe Billups was not a passive participant in the alleged scheme, but rather actively used the signals to defraud unsuspecting victims.
What is unclear is how much Billups knew about the higher-ups in the alleged scheme. The key to answering this appears to be the nature of Stroud’s relationship with Billups, who is also accused of organizing rigged poker games in New York under Mafia supervision.
“There has to be some motive there,” Albanese said. “How could Stroud, or whoever, have been able to recruit him? What was the impetus? Maybe he can tell us.”
USA TODAY Sports sent a list of questions to Chris Haywood, the attorney representing Billups, asking him about the nature and origins of Billups’ alleged relationship with Stroud and whether Billups had any knowledge of any potential ties to organized crime in the alleged scheme. Heywood did not respond.
In a statement to ESPN on Oct. 23, Haywood called Billups a “man of integrity” and spoke of Billups’ accomplishments, reputation and freedom.
“He wasn’t going to jeopardize them for anything, let alone a card game,” Haywood said.
Police said Stroud shot and killed a man through the door of his Louisville home in March 1994 while he was gambling and playing cards, Louisville’s WAVE News reported. WAVE also reported that Stroud was stopped in 2001 for an expired tag when police found “what appeared to be sports betting cards, dice, playing cards, and gambling records” in his car.
In addition to being accused of organizing the fraudulent games, Stroud is also accused of providing much of the technology used in the fraud, and of committing a robbery at gunpoint to steal a fraudulent card shuffling machine.
USA TODAY Sports also sent a list of questions to Patrick J. Wren, the attorney representing Stroud, asking him about the nature and origins of Stroud’s relationship with Billups. Ren didn’t react either.
Assuming Billups was knowingly involved in the scheme, the final mystery is what, other than money, lured him in.
None of the experts interviewed for this article wanted to make definitive assumptions, but possible explanations include undisclosed financial hardship, blackmail, the thrill of risk, a desire to return to the competitive arena after retirement, or the possibility that he was misled about the seriousness of the alleged surgery.
So what options does Chauncey Billups have?
Mr. Billups is scheduled to appear in court in Brooklyn on November 24th. He has been asked to produce his passport and is prohibited from gambling or having contact with other defendants.
Experts interviewed for this article speculated that defendants would begin pursuing plea deals for immunity or more lenient sentences.
Due to the non-violent allegations against Mr. Billups and his clean criminal history, experts suggested that Mr. Billups should strongly consider a plea deal.
In January 2000, Billups settled a civil suit for an undisclosed amount stemming from a 1997 incident in which a woman claimed she was raped by Billups and former teammate Ron Mercer. No criminal charges were filed, but a rape kit test on the victim found injuries consistent with sexual assault, according to a police report.
If Mr. Billups feels he can prove his innocence in this case, another option would be to fight the charges in court, but that comes with significant risks. Lawyers representing Billups and the other defendants don’t know what evidence investigators have at this point, which only exacerbates the problem.
The general consensus among experts was that if federal investigators built a high-profile case, they would likely be confident of winning a conviction.
“It would be very embarrassing for the prosecutors if they got off,” Varese said. “If you go after very important people who have high status in the community and you put them through the system, you don’t want it to seem like you made a mistake.”
Contributed by: Nick Penzenstadler
