Former NBA player Malik Beasley and NBA player agent Paolo Zamorano pled not guilty Wednesday afternoon to multiple charges in a wide-reaching illegal sports betting case. The two entered their pleas in federal court in Brooklyn and were released on $100,000 bond. Beasley’s parents guaranteed his bond while Zamorano’s father and wife backed his.
On Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed an indictment naming the pair and four others “in a scheme to bribe Beasley to manipulate his performance in NBA games and use inside information about Beasley’s intended performance to profit via illegal betting activity,” per a press release. Prosecutors pointed to a series of 2024 games in which Beasley, then a Milwaukee Buck, allegedly agreed to alter his performance to allow bettors to win under/over betting markets.
Former NBA player Edward Davis and co-conspirators William Brown, Robert Gorodetsky, Ernesto Plascencia are also charged with wire fraud conspiracy, bribery in sporting contests, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. Per the EDNY, all six will appear before U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall on Aug. 6.
Federal prosecutors late last week requested that DeArcy Hall preside as the cases are “presumptively related” to the Earnest, Pham, and Awawdeh cases that are also part of the scandal. The cases involve additional former NBA players, including Terry Rozier and Jalen Smith, who was set to be sentenced in June, but last week the date was continued to Oct. 13.
Not Beasley’s first brush with law
Davis played 12 seasons in the NBA, most recently for the Cleveland Cavaliers (2020-21). Davis and Beasley were first-round NBA picks in 2010 and 2016, respectively, and the two were Minnesota Timberwolves teammates in 2020-21.
Beasley played in the NBA as recently as the 2024-25 season, when he set a Detroit Pistons team record with 212 three-pointers. He played on a one-year, $6 million contract. This February, Beasley signed a deal to play with Cangrejeros de Santurce in Puerto Rico, but he was released in May.
In 2020, Beasley was arrested in Minnesota for marijuana possession, concealing stolen property, and brandishing a firearm. He ultimately served 78 days of a 120-day sentence.
“Mr. Beasley welcomes his day in Court and is eager to fight,” his attorney, Jason Goldman, told LA Mag Wednesday. “Yet, we can’t ignore that leagues and lawmakers have aggressively embraced and promoted sports gambling, normalizing an industry that has fueled widespread addiction and financial hardship. If we are going to have an honest conversation about these issues, it cannot begin and end with individual athletes while the institutions that have profited billions, escape scrutiny. We’ll address the facts where they belong.”
