Among those arrested were Portland Trail Blazers head coach and Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones. The FBI said the investigation, Operation Zhen Diagram, uncovered a nationwide gambling ring that defrauded victims of millions of dollars through poker schemes, sports betting manipulation, and cryptocurrency laundering.

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Federal prosecutors announced two major indictments shortly after 10 a.m. in New York, one charging six people with using insider NBA information in a sports betting conspiracy, and another charging 31 defendants, including former athletes, with running rigged poker games tied to the Gambino and Genovese crime families. Three men, Damon Jones, Eric Earnest, and Shane Henning, were charged in both cases.

The bureau’s evidence included over 3,000 recorded phone calls and meetings with alleged conspirators. Undercover agents, Patel said, participated in a rigged poker game that used cheating devices, such as altered shuffling machines, to expose the ring’s methods.

“The fraud is mind-boggling,” Patel said. “It’s not hundreds of dollars, it’s not thousands of dollars, it’s not tens of thousands of dollars. It’s not even millions of dollars. We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation, and we could not have done it without our interagency partners that are before us today.”

Rozier’s arrest was tied to allegations of manipulating in-game statistics to benefit betting operations, while Billups was accused of participating in illicit poker events connected to the criminal network. Jones allegedly passed insider information to co-conspirators while working as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers.

The FBI said the gambling operation overlapped with a parallel investigation, dubbed Operation Nothing But Bet, targeting fixed NCAA basketball games. Both inquiries have reportedly exposed ties between professional athletes and long-standing organized crime entities.

Rozier’s attorney, James Trusty of Ifrah Law PLLC, condemned the arrest in a statement to the Washington Examiner, calling it a “photo op” orchestrated to embarrass his client.

“They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk,” Trusty said. “They appear to be taking the word of spectacularly in-credible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case. Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”

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Rozier did not play in the Miami Heat’s game against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night, while Billups was on the bench for the Trail Blazers’ matchup with the Minnesota Timberwolves shortly before his arrest. Billups and Rozier are expected to make their first appearances in federal court in Portland and Orlando, respectively, on Thursday afternoon.

Federal officials said proceeds from the illegal betting operation were laundered through shell companies and converted to cryptocurrency to avoid detection. The FBI said the investigation remains ongoing and declined to comment on whether more arrests are expected.