Portland Path Blazers head coach and Nationwide Basketball Affiliation Corridor of Famer Chauncey Billups pleaded not responsible on Monday in Brooklyn federal court docket to prices he conspired to lure unsuspecting poker gamers to video games allegedly rigged by the Mafia.
“We enter a plea of not responsible,” protection lawyer Mark Mukasey stated.
Prosecutors stated Billups was one of many alleged scheme’s “face playing cards” who used his movie star to draw high-rollers to poker tables that have been outfitted with X-ray expertise and altered shuffling machines. The poker video games have been backed by organized crime households, in keeping with the indictment, which was revealed Oct. 23.
Portland Path Blazers Coach Chauncey Billups arrives for his arraignment listening to at U.S. District Courtroom for the Japanese District of New York, November 24, 2025 in New York Metropolis.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures
The choose on Monday ordered Billups be launched on bond, the phrases of that are being negotiated in a separate courtroom.
Choose Ramon Reyes stated he intends for the trial to start in September 2026.
“Do no matter you need to do to get it able to go,” Reyes stated.
Billups, who spent 17 seasons within the NBA and was the 2004 NBA Finals MVP, is considered one of 31 defendants charged within the scheme, all of whom are due in court docket Monday. They’re going through numerous prices of wire fraud conspiracy and cash laundering conspiracy.
All 31 defendants appeared in court docket on Monday.
“With respect to at the very least some defendants, plea negotiations have begun,” one of many prosecutors, Michael Gibaldi, stated. He didn’t say which defendants may choose to vary their plea to responsible and resolve their instances earlier than trial.
Federal prosecutors beforehand signaled that they count on plenty of the defendants will in the end choose to plead responsible.
“Though it’s too early for the federal government and any of the defendants to interact in substantial plea negotiations, the federal government and protection counsel for a number of defendants have begun productive discussions that the federal government hopes will in the end result in resolutions as to a number of defendants with out the necessity for a trial,” prosecutors wrote in a court docket submitting forward of Monday’s standing convention.
Portland Path Blazers Coach Chauncey Billups arrives for his arraignment listening to at U.S. District Courtroom for the Japanese District of New York, November 24, 2025 in New York Metropolis.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures
The proof towards Billups and his codefendants – together with Miami Warmth guard Terry Rozier and former participant and coach Damon Jones – comes from digital units, surveillance images, pole digital camera footage, financial institution data and telephone data, prosecutors stated.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 08: Portland Path Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups seems to be on throughout the sport towards the Golden State Warriors at Chase Middle on Oct. 8, 2025, in San Francisco, California. (Photograph by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Pictures)
Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Pictures
Lower than per week after the fees towards Billups and others have been revealed, the NBA announced that it was endeavor a overview of how the league can shield itself from sports activities betting and whether or not it is doing sufficient to teach coaches, gamers and different personnel concerning the “dire dangers” playing might pose to their careers, in keeping with an NBA league memo obtained by ABC Information.
Billups and Rozier have been instantly positioned on go away by their groups when the fees have been introduced, the NBA stated.
