A Brooklyn man was arrested Monday and accused of conspiring with others, including recently suspended NBA player Jontay Porter, to defraud a gambling company. New York City prosecutors announced Tuesday.
By the criminal complaint, Long Phi Pham, nicknamed “Bruce”, was detained while trying to board a flight to Australia with a one-way ticket at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He reportedly had with him $12,000 in cash, two cashier’s checks totaling $80,000, betting slips and three cell phones.
The note was reportedly purchased a day after the government attempted to question one of Pham’s three alleged accomplices, all of whom remain at large. Their identities are redacted in the criminal complaint.
The Justice Department announcement and criminal complaint do not identify Porter by name, but the details of the case match exactly what led to Porter’s lifetime ban from the NBA. ESPN He has also identified Porter as the player involved.
Jontay Porter allegedly walked away from games due to debts to bookmaker
The new information is that Porter had allegedly racked up “significant” gambling debts with one of the defendants, who is accused of encouraging him to settle those debts with a “special” (i.e., withdrawing from gambling early to ensure that certain support bets are met). the short ones).
Among the messages included by prosecutors is Porter telling the defendant “If I don’t make a special deal with your terms. Then it’s over. And you hate me and if I don’t get you 8k by Friday you’re going to come to Toronto to beat me up.”
Porter subsequently left a Toronto Raptors game on January 22 with what was diagnosed as a corneal abrasion. Porter allegedly told Pham and his co-conspirators that he would withdraw from a game on January 26, which he did, scoring zero points, three rebounds and one assist. He told team officials that he had aggravated the corneal abrasion, but a review of the video showed no contact with Porter’s eyes.
Meanwhile, a relative of one of the defendants allegedly placed a $10,000 bet on Porter’s points, assists and steals, the success of which netted them $75,000. Another defendant allegedly bet $7,000 on a combination of points, assists and rebounds and netted $33,250.
Before another game on March 20, Porter complained of symptoms indicating food poisoning and then allegedly told Pham’s group that he would leave the game early. The group allegedly agreed to a profit-sharing agreement in which Porter would receive 24% of the profits.
Pham proceeded to play and folded after three minutes, while the defendants allegedly made a series of low bets. Among the bets noted by the DOJ, they allegedly made a total of $109,900 and made a net profit of $1,167,625.
Had the group gone ahead with its profit-sharing plan, that windfall would have netted Porter $280,230.
At that point, however, the betting companies involved understandably became suspicious and suspended the defendant’s account, then flagged the bets to the NBA and the International Gambling Integrity Association, which subsequently turned the matter over to the FBI.
It was a remarkably brazen scheme that involved betting inexplicable amounts of money on a little-known gambler, which didn’t make it difficult to catch him.
Jontay Porter: ‘I could be hit wa rich’
After the games that would cost him his NBA career, Porter allegedly texted the “might get hit wa rico” group and asked them if they had “delete(d) all the stuff” from their personal cell phones. “Rico” is a reference to the “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act”, which is often used to crack down on organized crime.
The group was apparently unhappy at this point with their money being frozen, as one defendant texted another: “I really need you to harass (Betting Company 1). At least give me my main money back.” “. At the time, Porter had been banned by the NBA.