Chauncey Billups enters not guilty plea in rigged poker games case
NEW YORK — Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty on Monday during his appearance at a federal courthouse in Brooklyn on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy as authorities accuse the Naismith Hall of Famer of being the ‘face card’ in a scheme that helped lure players to poker games held in Las Vegas, where sophisticated machines were used to dupe victims out of millions of dollars.
Both charges carry a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison if convicted.
Billups’ attorney, Marc Mukasey, entered the plea on behalf of his client before U.S. District Judge Ramon Reye during the hearing, with Billups speaking only to answer specific questions from Reye. The bail for Billups was set at $5 million, and he used his Colorado home as collateral to secure the bond.
Billups, dressed in a gray suit and light blue dress shirt, and flanked by his attorneys, arrived at the Theodore Roosevelt United States Courthouse in Brooklyn, home to the Eastern District of New York, nearly an hour before his arraignment, which was also a status conference hearing for the other 30 defendants in the case, dubbed ‘Operation Royal Flush,’ which prosecutors say involved organized crime figures, who committed violent acts to collect on debts.
All 31 defendants are scheduled for a case status update on March 4, as the authorities prepare their case, adding that during the discovery phase, they expect to produce one terabyte of data.
Reye said he hopes to start the trial by September 2026.
When he was arrested in Portland on Oct. 23, Billups was ordered by a judge to forfeit his passport and restrict his travel to Oregon, Colorado, and New York.
The 49-year-old Billups, a five-time All-Star who spent 17 seasons in the NBA and won a Finals MVP award with the Detroit Pistons in 2004, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024.
In another part of the indictment tied to gambling, Billups is believed to be ‘Co-Conspirator 8,’ who authorities say gave confidential game information before it was publicly available, and is described as an ex-NBA player who played from 1997 to 2014, an NBA coach since 2021, and an Oregon resident. Billups meets all three of those characteristics.
Billups is on unpaid leave from his job coaching the Trail Blazers, as is Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, who is due in court at the Brooklyn federal courthouse Dec. 8. Federal authorities allege in court documents that Rozier provided insider information, which gamblers used to make wagers involving the Los Angeles Lakers, Trail Blazers, Charlotte Hornets, Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors over the span of a year.
Former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones has already pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy when he made his initial appearance in court on Nov. 6 and was released on a $200,00 bond.
Authorities say that Jones allegedly shared and sold insider information on numerous occasions about undisclosed details of NBA games, such as lineup decisions and pre-released medical information, to his co-conspirators, who then placed significant wagers based on the tips. The medical information allegedly involved LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who were playing for the Lakers at the time. James and Davis have not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Jones is also accused of using his notoriety to get people to poker games rigged by organized crime figures in order to steal money from them, sometimes using technology, including poker chip trays with hidden cameras, and rigged shuffling machines with the ability to read the cards in the deck.
