NBA Coach Billups Pleads Innocent To Mafia-linked Gambling

Billups, a previous Detroit Pistons star and NBA Hall of Famer, was apprehended in connection with rigged unlawful poker games


Portland Trail coach Chauncey Billups pleaded innocent Monday to alleged involvement in Mafia-linked illegal gaming plans that rocked the NBA, prosecutors stated.


Billups, a previous Detroit Pistons star and NBA Hall of Famer, was apprehended in connection with rigged unlawful poker games tied to Mafia crime families.


He was targeted along with Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier in an FBI-led examination into the fraud that presumably saw players cheated with using advanced approaches consisting of an X-ray table and barcoded card decks.


Dozens of other suspects were apprehended as part of the FBI probe.


Rozier and Billups were put on indefinite leave by the NBA after being arrested in the gaming examination.


Rozier and a former NBA gamer and assistant coach, Damon Jones, were amongst six individuals jailed in a different sports betting case.


Billups was indicted on charges of conspiracy to devote wire fraud and cash 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 quick 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 added.


Prosecutors say Billups's celeb helped lure gamers to high-stakes games that utilized "high-tech unfaithful technology."


That tech consisted of shuffling machines that might read cards, hidden cameras and barcoded decks.


NBA commissioner Adam Silver said last month he was "deeply disrupted" by the far-ranging FBI probe into illegal gaming.


"My preliminary response was I was deeply disrupted," Silver stated in an interview with Amazon Prime.


"There's nothing more crucial for the league and its fans than the stability of the competition."


Silver expressed remorse that the claims had actually taken attention far from the start of the season.


"I ask forgiveness to our fans that we are all handling, now, this scenario," Silver said.