US charges 20 people with rigging college, Chinese basketball games
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The scheme started in 2022 with Chinese Basketball Association players, before widening to US college basketball during the 2023-2024 season.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- US prosecutors charged 20 people, including ex-athletes and influencers, with rigging college and Chinese basketball games since 2022.
- Players were bribed to underperform, ensuring bets on teams fell short of victory margins, exploiting legalised sports betting's popularity.
- Two influencers previously charged in an NBA bet-rigging case are implicated, along with others in separate poker cheating allegations.
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NEW YORK - Pennsylvania federal prosecutors charged 20 people with rigging bets on college and Chinese professional basketball games, according to an indictment unsealed on Jan 15, the latest case to accuse athletes of cheating at legalised sports betting that has exploded in popularity in the US.
The 70-page indictment names more than a dozen former college and professional basketball players, as well as two sports-betting influencers who were previously charged in a sweeping NBA bet-rigging investigation. The charges include bribery in sporting contests, wire fraud and conspiracy.
Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia allege the scheme began in 2022, when several of the defendants began recruiting and bribing Chinese Basketball Association players to intentionally underperform in games to ensure certain bets placed on their teams.
The scheme widened to US college basketball during the 2023-2024 season, according to prosecutors, who said the defendants recruited players to accept bribes for helping to ensure their teams came up short of their projected margins of victory, or spreads.
Prosecutors said the proliferation of legalised sports betting allowed the fixers to avoid detection by spreading their wagers around widely.
Two of the defendants, sports-betting influencers Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley, were charged in October alongside Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat and former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones with rigging bets on NBA games
Those charges were unveiled in Brooklyn federal court alongside a related case against more than a dozen defendants, including Portland Trail Blazers coach and NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, who is accused of conspiring to cheat at illicit poker games using high-tech equipment. Billups and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty. REUTERS
