More ex-NBA players indicted in sprawling gambling dustup

BROOKLYN (CN) — Malik Beasley, a nine-year veteran of the NBA, became the latest former professional basketball player accused of changing his game performance to profit off illegal bets made using the inside information.

Federal prosecutors charged the 29-year-old in an indictment unsealed Monday, along with another ex-player, 37-year-old Ed Davis, in the Eastern District of New York — the same courthouse where former Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier faces trial next year for similar conduct.

While Beasley played for the Milwaukee Bucks, prosecutors say he and his former teammate Davis agreed Beasley would underperform, and at times overperform, relative to his betting statistics in 2024 games against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Charlotte Hornets and Los Angeles Clippers. Davis and other co-defendants are accused of using that information to place, and win, crooked bets.

During one game in January 2024 against Cleveland, Beasley purportedly told Davis he’d underperform with respect to rebounding, allowing Davis and others to bet accordingly.

“Only way you can beat Vegas is sports betting … Everything else they got the edge,” Davis texted Beasley about a month before the Jan. 26, 2024, game, according to the indictment. The two then discussed moving the conversation to Snapchat.

“Better to talk on there,” Davis wrote. “We can make some good money.”

About a month after that game, leading up to the game against the Hornets, Beasley said he’d underperform with respect to points but overperform on rebounds, the feds say. And at a third game described in the charges, in March 2024, Beasley is accused of again informing Davis he’d overperform on rebounds — each time getting a bribe from Davis and allowing others to bet on the rigged games.

According to the indictment, the scheme collapsed later in March 2024, when Beasley failed to perform as planned and the corresponding bets lost.

The defendants “turned professional basketball into a criminal betting operation, bribing then-NBA player Malik Beasley to fix his performance in multiple games in order to place fraudulent wagers, enrich themselves and cheat legitimate sportsbooks,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement announcing the charges against the players and their four co-defendants: William Brown, Robert Gorodetsky, Ernesto Plascencia and NBA player agent Paolo Zamorano.

Beasley and the co-defendants face charges of wire fraud, bribery in sporting contests, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy.

They will be arraigned at a later date in Brooklyn federal court.

“Bribery and insider betting schemes like this one involving former NBA players and a current NBA player agent who exploited inside NBA information for profit erode the integrity of American sports and victimize the sports-watching public," Nocella said Monday.

NBA players hit the court

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have also accused Rozier, 32, of tipping off his co-defendant and childhood friend Deniro Laster that he’d be exiting early from a March 2023 game against the New Orleans Pelicans due to an injury. Laster then sold that information to other bettors, according to the October 2025 indictment.

Rozier’s co-defendant Marves Fairley, a 40-year-old sports betting influencer, admitted last month he cashed in on insider information from players to place fraudulent bets on games in the U.S. and China.

And in a separate case, the feds accuse players of helping to rig mafia-linked poker games using sophisticated card-reading, using their celebrity to draw interest in the games. That indictment names Chauncey Billups, a former player and coach for the Portland Trail Blazers.

Prosecutors signaled that many of the 31 defendants are engaged in plea talks with the government.

In April, Damon Jones, 49, a former NBA player and coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers, pleaded guilty to charges in both cases.

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