Chauncey Billups appears to be unnamed conspirator in indictment

Portland Trail Blazers Head Coach Chauncey Billups appears to be an unnamed co-conspirator identified in a criminal indictment as telling another man the team planned to intentionally lose a March 2023 game against the Chicago Bulls to improve the Trail Blazers’ chances of getting a better pick in the NBA draft.

Details in the indictment describing the NBA playing and coaching career of “Co-Conspirator 8,” who leaked the plan to tank the game, match those of Billups, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

The man who received the tip then shared that information with another man, who, with several others, placed bets with legal online bookmakers totaling about $100,000 that the Trail Blazers would lose the game, the indictment alleges.

The Blazers lost the game 124-96 after their four leading per-game scorers for that season did not play.

The indictment, unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, does not identify by name Billups, who is not charged in the case.

But he was arrested Thursday in Portland on charges in another federal indictment in Brooklyn, which accuses him of participating in a scheme with alleged Mafia members to swindle unwitting players in underground poker games out of millions of dollars with high-tech cheating devices.

Billups, who was immediately placed on leave from his team by the NBA, is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in that case.

In the other indictment, related to sports betting, Co-Conspirator 8 is described as being “a resident of Oregon” who “was an NBA player from approximately 1997 through 2014, and an NBA coach since at least 2021.”

Billups was a first-round pick in 1997 by the Boston Celtics. He retired in 2014 as a player for the Detroit Pistons. Billups became Portland’s head coach in 2021.

Billups’ lawyer and agent did not immediately respond to CNBC on Friday when asked if Billups is Co-Conspirator 8 in the sports betting indictment.

But in a statement to NBC News, Billups’ lawyer, Chris Heywood, denied the suggestion in the indictment that Billups told someone the Trail Blazers planned to tank the game.

“Chauncey Billups has never and would never gamble on basketball games, provide insider information, or sacrifice the trust of his team and the League, as it would tarnish the game he has devoted his entire life to,” Heywood told NBC.

Heywood, on Thursday denied any wrongdoing by Billups in the poker-related indictment.

“Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows he is a man of integrity; men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others,” Heywood said that day.

“To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his hall-of-fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom,” Heywood said. “He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game.”

That sports betting indictment accuses six men, including Miami Heat player Terry Rozier and former NBA player Damon Jones, of a scheme in which gamblers used confidential information leaked to them about the injury status and other details about NBA players to make wagers.

Jim Trusty, an attorney for Rozier, told CNBC on Thursday that prosecutors “appear to be taking the word of spectacularly in-credible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing.”

One of the players Jones is accused of leaking information about, but who is not accused of wrongdoing, appears to be Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James. The indictment contains details about indictment about Jones and his career as a Cleveland Cavaliers teammate of James, and about James’ injury status in a game Jones allegedly leaked about that match up with public information.

The indictment says that on March 24, 2023, the Trail Blazers’ record was a woeful 32-40 going into the game against the Bulls.

“And the team was out of playoff contention with only 10 games remaining in the season,” the indictment says.

“Prior to the March 24 Game, Co-Conspirator 8 told the defendant Eric Earnest that the Trail Blazers were going to be tanking (i.e., intentionally losing) to increase their odds of getting a better draft pick in the upcoming NBA draft,” the indictment alleges.

Co-Conspirator 8 also allegedly told Earnest, “before the news was publicly announced, that several of the Trail Blazers’ best players, including Player 1, an individual whose identity is known to the Grand Jury, would not be playing in the March 24 Game,” the indictment says.

Earnest, who is one of the people indicted in the case, then allegedly provided the information about the Trail Blazers to his co-defendant, Marves Fairley, “so that Fairley could place fraudulent wagers on the game and share the profits with Earnest,” according to the indictment.

Fairley promised to pay Earnest $5,000 if the bet against Portland paid off, the indictment says.

Fairley, as well as his co-defendant in the case, Shane Hennen, and other unidentified co-conspirators, then made or caused the placement of multiple bets that the Trail Blazers would lose, the indictment says.

Before the key Portland players were publicly ruled out of playing in the game, Fairley, Hennen, and others made wagers totaling about $100,000, according to the indictment, which notes that the betting odds and point spreads of the game changed after the Trail Blazers made public the injury status of key players.

The Trail Blazers ended the 2022-23 season in 13th place in the NBA’s Western Conference, with a record of 33 wins and 49 losses.

The team went on to make the third pick of the 2023 NBA draft, selecting Scoot Henderson, a guard.

Earnest and Hennen, in addition to being charged in the betting indictment, is charged with Billups and Damon Jones in the poker-related indictment filed in Brooklyn federal court.

CNBC has reached out for comment to a lawyer for Hennen. Information about lawyers for Fairley and Earnest were not available on the public docket for the criminal cases.