NBA Coach Billups Pleads Not Guilty To Mafia-linked Gambling

Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and NBA Hall of Famer, was jailed in connection with rigged illegal poker video games


Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups pleaded innocent Monday to declared participation in Mafia-linked prohibited gambling plans that rocked the NBA, district attorneys said.


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


He was targeted together with Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier in an FBI-led investigation into the scam that presumably saw gamers cheated with using advanced methods consisting of an X-ray table and barcoded card decks.


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


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


Rozier and a previous NBA gamer and assistant coach, Damon Jones, were among six individuals apprehended in a different sports betting case.


Billups was indicted on charges of conspiracy to devote wire fraud and money laundering, to which he pleaded innocent Monday, the Eastern District of New York district attorneys' workplace verified to AFP.


Billups was released on bond after initially appearing in federal court in Portland, Oregon, and was by attorney Marc Mukasey at a brief 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 included.


Prosecutors say Billups's celebrity helped draw players to high-stakes video games that utilized "state-of-the-art unfaithful innovation."


That tech consisted of shuffling machines that could check out cards, concealed cams and barcoded decks.


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


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


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


Silver revealed remorse that the allegations had taken attention far from the start of the season.


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