NBA Coach Billups Pleads Not Guilty To Mafia-linked Gambling

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


Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty Monday to declared participation in Mafia-linked unlawful gambling schemes 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 connected to Mafia crime families.


He was targeted together with Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier in an FBI-led examination into the scam that supposedly saw players cheated with making use of advanced approaches including 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 detained in the gaming investigation.


Rozier and a former NBA gamer and assistant coach, Damon Jones, were amongst 6 people detained in a different sports betting case.


Billups was prosecuted on charges of conspiracy to dedicate wire fraud and cash laundering, to which he pleaded not guilty Monday, the Eastern District of New york city district attorneys' workplace verified to AFP.


Billups was released on bond after initially appearing in federal court in Portland, Oregon, and was represented by lawyer 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 added.


Prosecutors state Billups's celeb helped entice players to high-stakes games that used "high-tech unfaithful technology."


That tech consisted of shuffling devices that might read cards, concealed cameras and barcoded decks.


NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated last month he was "deeply disturbed" by the far-ranging FBI probe into illegal gambling.


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


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


Silver expressed regret that the claims had taken away from the start of the season.


"I apologize to our fans that we are all handling, now, this scenario," Silver stated.