"It took just two days after tipoff for the NBA to get rocked by one of the most shocking and existential criminal scandals in the league's 80-year history. On Thursday morning, the feds did a sweep that rounded up a whopping 34 people in connection with two separate FBI probes: the first, into sports-betting schemes that benefited from inside information; the second, into fixed poker games backed by members of four New York-based Mafia families."
"What they were involved in, as FBI Director Kash Patel attested at a press conference, was "a wide-sweeping criminal enterprise that envelops both the NBA and La Cosa Nostra." Even outside the mob ties, these arrests cast a pall over the league's cozy associations with the sportsbooks that dominate the business of American athletics-and tease even more arrests, investigations, accusations, and trials to come, as unnamed co-conspirators with explicit team ties run rampant across legal filings."
Federal authorities executed a sweep that arrested 34 people in two FBI probes into sports-betting schemes using inside information and fixed poker games tied to New York Mafia families. High-profile basketball figures implicated include Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier, and Damon Jones, with Billups and Rozier released on bail under substantial conditions and placed on league leave pending court dates. Investigators described a wide-sweeping criminal enterprise linking the NBA and La Cosa Nostra. The arrests raise concerns about the league's relationships with sportsbooks and signal potential additional arrests and legal actions. An FBI assistant director called the arrests only the tip of the iceberg.
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