Federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania are recommending a maximum 87-month sentence in addition to imposing a $1,148,137.41 restitution requirement for Jalen Smith, who is accused of being at the fulcrum of an NCAA illegal bookmaking scheme. The prosecutors laid out their recommendations and reasoning in an Oct. 2 sentencing memorandum.
In a reply brief filed Thursday, Smith’s lawyer asked for a “substantial downward variance from the advisory guideline range.” Sentencing is set for Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Across the country in California, federal prosecutors and lawyers for Damien LeForbes Friday submitted a joint brief proposing probation for the former professional poker player who pled guilty in August 2024 to charges of money laundering and running an illegal sportsbook. LeForbes is set to be sentenced Thursday at 11 a.m. PT in U.S. District Court for the District of Central California.
Since Wayne Nix was indicted in 2022, a series of illegal betting scandals have roiled the gambling world. Nix pled guilty to charges related to illegal bookmaking, as did Mathew Bowyer, the bookie for Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. Nix, the first to be indicted, has yet to be sentenced.
Mizuhara is serving a five-year federal prison term after pleading guilty to bank fraud for stealing $17 million from Ohtani and filing a false tax return. In August 2025, Bowyer was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison — he’s already served and been released — after pleading guilty to running an illegal sportsbook, money laundering, and filing a false tax return. Neither Mizuhara nor Bowyer were accused of fixing games or bribing athletes.
A series of other betting cases continue to unfold. The trial of Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, both accused of game fixing and accepting bribes, is set to start Nov. 2. Ex-NBA player Terry Rozier, accused of sports bribery, wire fraud, and money laundering, is set to go on trial beginning Feb. 8, 2027. At least one of Rozier’s co-defendants, ex-NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones, has already pled guilty and awaits sentencing.
For Smith, other factors at play
Smith didn’t just run an enormous illegal sports betting scheme on college basketball between 2022-24 — he was also in possession of stolen semiautomatic machine gun and was previously convicted of a felony for drug trafficking, per court documents.
Prosecutors pointed to Smith’s “continued criminal conduct” in their proposed sentencing. But in his own sentencing memo, Smith’s lawyer, Rocco C. Cipparone, wrote that eight years ago Smith was convicted for possession with intent to sell marijuana, served his time, and has had no other drug convictions. He also wrote that Smith has also already settled the weapons charge.
For the betting scheme itself, Smith enlisted three other “fixers” to recruit NCAA players, prosecutors wrote, and he “was the scheme’s most prolific recruiter and manager of corrupt players. He recruited dozens of players to participate in the scheme, encouraged them to recruit teammates, directed them in fixing games, maintained frequent communications with them to ensure the scheme succeeded, and then orchestrated and personally delivered the bribe payments to the players.”
Cipparone argues for a lesser sentence because Smith was not part of the second prong of the match-fixing scheme, which involved the Chinese Basketball Association. He said Smith was “recruited” into the NCAA scheme as an organizer, but was not an “originator” of the scheme. The attorney also suggests that Smith’s untreated ADHD and ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) should be taken into consideration, and that he should be given more credit for pleading guilty early.
Per court documents, the NCAA scheme involved 39 players on 17 teams and more than $3 million was wagered. Legal sportsbooks lost more than $1.1 million. As they call for “serious punishment,” federal prosecutors argue that Smith and his co-conspirators shook the very foundation of sports.
“The defendant and his cohorts deliberately corrupted the fundamental principles on which competitive sports depend — fairness, honesty, and respect for the rules of competition — and he did so because of greed. The defendant aimed a wrecking ball at the integrity of college basketball, caring only about how much money he could generate by illegally manipulating the outcome of the games.”
In his filing, Cipparone included nine letters in support of Smith from family members, educators, and those who work in volunteer and support services, highlighting his work in the community, commitment, and dependability.
“What stands out most about Jalen is the consistency of his character,” his sister-in-law wrote. “He is dependable, compassionate, responsible, and willing to put the needs of others before his own. My children know they can rely on him, and our family knows that we can count on him when we need support.”
Why go easy on LeForbes?
LeForbes’ attorney Richard A. Schonfeld and federal prosecutors united to oppose a presentencing memorandum created by the U.S. Probation Department and filed earlier this year. That report calls for LeForbes to spend 15-21 months in prison, but both sides agree that LeForbes’ participation in illegal gambling was “an aberration rather than a pattern,” as he had no prior criminal history. Since turning himself in in September 2024, LeForbes has been in individual therapy as well as attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings. He’s also been on pre-trial supervision for more than two years.
In the joint brief, the attorneys pointed to LeForbes’ history of supporting himself and his family “through legitimate means” and that he is an involved parent with his two children.
Both sides used Bowyer’s crime and sentencing as a comparison — Bowyer ran an illegal sportsbook servicing more than 700 customers at its height and handling hundreds of millions of dollars in bets. His “conduct” they wrote, was “materially more serious, broader in scope, and more harmful than the conduct at issue here. The recommended sentence in the presentencing report would be longer, even at the minimum, than Bowyer’s.
“Accordingly, the parties agree that Mr. Bowyer’s conduct, when compared to Defendant’s conduct, reflects a defendant who: (1) operated at a significantly larger scale; (2) handled greater sums of money; (3) engaged in additional criminal conduct in the form of tax fraud; and (4) caused identifiable financial harm to the federal government.”
