פרשת הימורים בלתי חוקיים בליגת האן.בי.איי: בוצעו מספר מעצרים

We're following the developments involving current and former NBA stars arrested and charged in an illegal gambling and sports betting operation. NTD's Washington correspondent Jack Bradley has more. The FBI led a coordinated takedown across 11 states. More than 30 people including current and former NBA stars are being charged in two overlapping cases involving illegal sports betting and mafia-backed poker games. Portland Trailblazers headcoats Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rosier are among those arrested and charged on Thursday. 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 Casa Nostra. Authorities say Rosier was part of a conspiracy to profit off of non-public NBA information including when players plan to sit out or leave a game early. In one instance while playing for Charlotte in March 2023 prosecutors say Rosier told others that he'd fake an injury and leave a game early allowing others to win big by betting against his stats. Most of these bets succeeded and the intended losses were in the millions of dollars. Rosier's lawyer Jim Trustee calls the charges baseless. He told CNN Sports that his client was cleared by the NBA last year and that prosecutors are quote taking the word of spectacularly incredible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Meanwhile Portland head coach Chauncey Billups faces charges in a separate mafia-backed poker rigging operation. Prosecutors say they operated underground poker games using x-ray tables and fake shuffling machines to steal from wealthy players. Victims were allegedly lured in by the chance to play alongside celebrities but sometimes losing hundreds of thousands of dollars per game. The so-called face cards included the defendant Chauncey Billups and also Damon Jones a former NBA player and coach. Authorities say members of the Italian-American mafia families took cuts of the profits and used extortion and crypto laundering to move the money including the gunpoint robbery of a person in order to obtain a rigged shuffling machine and extortions that were perpetrated against victims in order to ensure that they repaid their gambling debts. Both Billups and Rosier have been placed on leave by their teams and the NBA says it's reviewing the indictments. They're also calling it a serious matter and saying the integrity of the game remains its top priority. Reporting by Jack Bradley, NTD News.