1st defendant sentenced in NBA gambling scheme gets 2 years in prison
Terry Rozier #2 of the Miami Heat in action against the Boston Celtics during the second half at Kaseya Center on February 10, 2025, in Miami, Florida. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
(BROOKLYN) — A federal judge in Brooklyn handed down a two-year prison sentence Wednesday to a gambler who prosecutors say defrauded sports betting platforms by using non-public information to place highly profitable wagers tied to the performance of NBA players allegedly in on the scheme.
Timothy McCormack is the first defendant to be sentenced for his role in a sweeping conspiracy allegedly involving former NBA players Terry Rozier and Jontay Porter that McCormack blamed on a gambling addiction.
“I’ve struggled with a gambling addiction for more than half my life,” McCormack said.
Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall expressed some sympathy. “He has an addiction,” she said. “I don’t believe the conduct Mr. McCormack engaged in defines him.”
The judge also agreed with federal prosecutors that McCormack undermined the integrity in sports.
“There is no question this is a serious crime,” DeArcy Hall said. “Sports matters to me as an individual, as it should to society.”
The sentence fell below the four-year sentence the government sought.
A federal prosecutor conceded McCormack was “not as culpable as some of his co-conspirators” but said he contributed to a “cold, hard fraud.”
“Without people like the defendant, these schemes can’t work,” the prosecutor, David Berman, told the judge.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Chartier pushed for a sentence without prison time.
“He was a degenerate gambler,” Chartier said. “It’s one of the ones you could make a movie about.”
Chartier said the betting platforms are “thriving” off of people like his client and told reporters there is “absolutely” some irony in the fact those betting platforms are considered victims in the case.
Porter, a former Toronto Raptor player, pleaded guilty in 2024 to a single count of wire fraud conspiracy in connection with a gambling scheme. He was banned for life from the league and is awaiting sentencing.
Former Miami Heat star Rozier faces federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty.
McCormack must report to prison April 20. He then must serve a year of supervised release during which time the judge said he is prohibited from gambling. The judge omitted a secondary prohibition on traveling to a casino, finding it unnecessary.
“Gambling is available on anybody’s phone,” DeArcy Hall said.
An NBA memo from October obtained by ABC News said, “With sports betting now occupying such a significant part of the current sports landscape, every effort must be made to ensure that players, coaches, and other NBA personnel are fully aware of the dire risks that gambling can impose upon their careers and livelihoods; that our injury disclosure rules are appropriate; and that players are protected from harassment from bettors.”
Portland Trail Blazers Coach Chauncey Billups arrives for his arraignment hearing at U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on November 24, 2025 in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Portland Trail Blazers head coach and National Basketball Association Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty on Monday in Brooklyn federal court to charges he conspired to lure unsuspecting poker players to games allegedly rigged by the Mafia.
“We enter a plea of not guilty,” defense attorney Mark Mukasey said.
Prosecutors said Billups was one of the alleged scheme’s “face cards” who used his celebrity to attract high-rollers to poker tables that were equipped with X-ray technology and altered shuffling machines. The poker games were backed by organized crime families, according to the indictment, which was revealed Oct. 23.
Billups was released on a $5 million bond, secured by a home in Colorado.
Judge Ramon Reyes said he intends for the trial to begin in September 2026.
“Do whatever you have to do to get it ready to go,” Reyes said.
Billups, who spent 17 seasons in the NBA and was the 2004 NBA Finals MVP, is one of 31 defendants charged in the scheme, all of whom are due in court Monday. They’re facing various charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.
All 31 defendants appeared in court on Monday.
“With respect to at least some defendants, plea negotiations have begun,” one of the prosecutors, Michael Gibaldi, said. He did not say which defendants might opt to change their plea to guilty and resolve their cases before trial.
Federal prosecutors previously signaled that they expect a number of the defendants will ultimately opt to plead guilty.
“Although it is too early for the government and any of the defendants to engage in substantial plea negotiations, the government and defense counsel for several defendants have begun productive discussions that the government hopes will ultimately lead to resolutions as to several defendants without the need for a trial,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing ahead of Monday’s status conference.
The evidence against Billups and his codefendants, including NBA coach Damon Jones, comes from electronic devices, surveillance photographs, pole camera footage, bank records and phone records, prosecutors said.
Less than a week after the charges against Billups and others were revealed, the NBA announced that it was undertaking a review of how the league can protect itself from sports betting and whether it’s doing enough to educate coaches, players and other personnel about the “dire risks” gambling could pose to their careers, according to an NBA league memo obtained by ABC News.
Billups and Rozier were immediately placed on leave by their teams when the charges were announced, the NBA said.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story erroneously identified Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier as one of the co-defendants in the alleged poker scheme.
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump said Friday evening he has signed a commutation releasing scandal-plagued former congressman George Santos from prison “immediately.”
Santos, 37, was less than three months into serving a seven-year sentence in federal prison after being convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The ex-lawmaker was released from prison just before 11 p.m. on Friday night and was picked up by his family, according to a statement from his lawyer, Joe Murray.
“Once they arrived, [Santos] walked right out and hopped into their car and drove home,” Murray said.
In a social media post, Trump said Santos, whom he called “somewhat of a ‘rogue,'” had the “Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”
“George has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated. Therefore, I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY. Good luck George, have a great life!” Trump said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, which successfully prosecuted Santos, had no comment.
According to the clemency grant, a photo of which was posted on X by U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, Trump granted Santos an “immediate commutation of his entire sentence to time served with no further fines, restitution, probation, supervised release, or other conditions.”
An attorney for Santos told ABC News while en route to the federal prison that they expect he will be released Friday night but are waiting for official word.
The attorney said that Martin and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche were extremely helpful in getting the commutation across the finish line, and noted that several members of Congress, including Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Tim Burchett, were very aggressive in campaigning for his release.
Santos pleaded guilty to a series of fraud crimes and was sentenced in April to 87 months in prison — the maximum he faced — and two years of supervised release.
The commutation comes days after the South Shore Press published a “passionate plea” from Santos to Trump, in which he expressed his support and asked that the president “allow me the opportunity to return to my family, my friends, and my community.”
“During my short tenure in Congress, I stood firmly behind your agenda — 100% of the time,” Santos wrote in the letter, published Monday. “I championed policies that strengthened our economy, defended our borders, and restored America’s standing on the world stage. I did it proudly, Sir, because I believed — and still believe — in the mission you set out to accomplish for the American people.”
Santos said in the letter that he was being held in “complete isolation” following an alleged death threat.
“Mr. President, I have nowhere else to turn. You have always been a man of second chances, a leader who believes in redemption and renewal. I am asking you now, from the depths of my heart, to extend that same belief to me,” he wrote.
Rep. Greene, who had recently called on Trump to commute Santos’ sentence, thanked the president for doing so on Friday, saying on X that the former congressman was “unfairly treated and put in solitary confinement, which is torture!!”
Santos pleaded guilty in August 2024, in which he admitted to claiming relatives had made contributions to his campaign when, in fact, they had not. Santos conceded he was trying to meet the fundraising threshold to qualify for financial help from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
He also stipulated that he committed other fraud, including charging donor credit cards without authorization and convincing donors to give money by falsely stating the money would be used for TV ads. He also stipulated he stole public money by applying for and receiving unemployment benefits during the pandemic to which he was not entitled.
As part of his plea deal, he agreed to pay nearly $600,000 in restitution and forfeiture.
Santos was expelled from Congress in December 2023, just under a year after assuming office to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
His expulsion from Congress followed accusations of ethics violations and other wrongdoing in a scathing report by the House Ethics Committee that claimed he was a fabulist and fraudster who used the prestige of political office to bilk tens of thousands of dollars out of other people.
Several New York House Republicans — who led the charge to expel George Santos from the House — criticized Trump’s commutation.
“George Santos didn’t merely lie — he stole millions, defrauded an election, and his crimes (for which he pled guilty) warrant more than a three-month sentence. He should devote the rest of his life to demonstrating remorse and making restitution to those he wronged,” New York GOP Rep. Nick LaLota, who represents a district on Long Island, said in a post on X.
New York GOP Rep. Andrew Garbarino, who is the current chair of the Homeland Security Committee and sat on the committee that investigated Santos, said in a statement that “less than three months” in prison is “not justice.”
Several House Democrats also condemned Trump’s move.
“Donald Trump has time to free serial fraudster George Santos from prison. But he can’t be bothered to address the Republican healthcare crisis crushing working class Americans. The extremists are insulting you every single day,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a post on X.
(DENVER) — An alleged child sexual assault fugitive has been taken into custody after more than four years on the run and a five-day manhunt in Colorado, according to officials.
Paul Sandoval, 62, was arrested just before 10:30 a.m. local time Sunday on Blanca Peak in Southeastern Colorado, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Sandoval was apprehended in a multi-agency manhunt comprised of more than 70 people from multiple federal, state and municipal agencies in Colorado and led by the U.S. Marshals Service Colorado Violent Offender Task Force and the Alamosa County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Marshals Service statement said.
Sandoval is wanted for felony sexual assault of a child and other charges, according to the statement.
“We want to express our gratitude and thanks to the U.S. Marshals Service and all of the other agencies involved that came to assist in this manhunt. We couldn’t have done it without their help,” Alamosa County Sheriff Robert Jackson said in the statement.
In March 2021, Sandoval allegedly bound and sexually assaulted an 8-year-old girl in a shed on his property, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, and fled into the mountains after the Alamosa County Sheriff’s Office issued a warrant for his arrest that same month.
Sandoval was spotted in late August after allegedly breaking into a home and vehicle in Alamosa County, the statement said. He was spotted on surveillance devices placed in the area by law enforcement and was “confirmed to be armed with a rifle,” according to the statement.
Some 13 state and federal agencies participated in the ensuing manhunt for Sandoval, in addition to the U.S. Marshals Service, including local and state law enforcement, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, the statement said.
Sandoval is being held at the Alamosa County Jail and is scheduled to be arraigned early Monday afternoon, according to the Colorado Courts and Probation website.
A spokesperson for the Alamosa County Jail declined to comment about Sandoval when contacted by ABC News, saying they were not authorized to do so.
