Former NBA player Damon Jones on Tuesday changed his plea to guilty in an illegal NBA gambling case and an illegal poker case, while according to new court documents alleged fixer Marves Fairley has agreed to plead guilty in two illegal basketball betting cases.
In the Eastern District of New York (EDNY), Jones pled guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy in the wide-reaching NBA scandal case as well as for participating in a high-stakes poker scheme.
“The deendant in this case traded his reputation for greed and fraud,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch, said via an EDNY press release. “By exploiting his access to the NBA, and rigging illegal poker games across the country, Damon Jones attempted to orchestrate a scheme that defrauded victims of millions of dollars.”
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. said during oral arguments that “Jones converted his fame and ties to professional basketball into a multi-faceted criminal betting operation. He used private locker
room and medical information from multiple NBA teams to cheat legitimate sportsbooks.”
Jones didn’t just lure poker players in
Jones could face up to 20 years in prison. He initially pleaded not guilty last fall. Jones was indicted in the federal illegal sports betting investigation that also led to the indictment of ex-Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, who Monday argued that his case be dismissed hours after federal prosecutors said they were bringing additional charges.
In the poker case, which also includes Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, Jones was known as a “face card,” per the EDNY. In that scheme, professional athletes were used to lure bettors into “underground” games in which “rigged cheating technology” was used. During oral arguments, Jones admitted that he not only encouraged players to the join the game but participated in the games as well.
During the games, Jones was part of “cheating teams who worked together using the cheating technology to defraud the victims; money launderers; and members and associates of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese organized crime families who backed games in the New York area and took a percentage of the crime proceeds from those games.”
Prosecutor wants judge change for Fairley
Fairley, who is also named among Jones’ co-conspirators in the NBA case in New York, is in court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in an NCAA point-shaving scandal too. Fairley and Shane Hennen are named in both complaints, and Hennen, a well-known Las Vegas gambler, pled not guilty in October. Fairley was indicted on conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the NBA case and is charged with committing bribery in sporting contests and wire fraud in the NCAA case.
Fairley was tagged as a “fixer” in court documents in the NCAA case, and sells himself as a tout. In the NBA case, he is accused of betting using privileged information. According to an EDNY spokesperson via ESPN, Fairley plans to plead guilty “in the near future.”
Also on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Nocella submitted a letter to EDNY judges LaShann DeArcy Hall and Dora L. Irizarry requesting that Fairley’s case be reassigned to Hall, who has presided over NBA betting cases dating back to July 2024, when former NBA player Jontay Porter was indicted after it came to light that he shared with bettors that he would leave games early, enabling them to use that information on prop bets.
Nocella argues in his letter that the cases are “presumptively related” and combining them would “be in the interests of justice and would result in significant savings of judicial resources.”
