Lead defendant in Brooklyn sports betting case to plead guilty ahead of NBA season tip

Weeks before the start of the NBA regular season, a domino in the complex Brooklyn federal sports betting case has fallen.

On Tuesday, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced that Eric Earnest intends to plead guilty in a case that has rocked the sport over the last 12 months. The announcement comes on the verge of the one-year anniversary of a sweeping indictment against Mafia figures, professional athletes and illegal poker entrepreneurs.

Nicknamed “Spook”, according to court filings, Earnest is the lead defendant in a brazen scheme where a group of conspirators attempted to defraud several commercial sportsbooks, with multiple NBA players allegedly manipulating props on their statistical performance. Earnest, 54, is facing charges on conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The hearing has been referred to US Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Marutollo, a judge who presided over several change of plea hearings in the comprehensive case. The hearing on 22 October will be held two days after the start of the NBA regular season.

As it relates to the wire fraud charge, the government submitted an elements sheet to advise the court on the elements of the count. Overall, prosecutors identified four unnamed sportsbook operators that were allegedly defrauded by the scheme. A handful of former NBA players, including, Terry Rozier, Jontay Porter and Damon Jones, have also been indicted on charges related to the manipulation of outcomes on various wagers.

“The defendant knowingly and willfully participated in the scheme or artifice to defraud, with knowledge of its fraudulent nature and with specific intent to defraud,” wrote Joseph Nocella, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a letter to Marutollo.

The allegations

Over a 16-month period through March 2024, Earnest and his co-conspirators allegedly used material non-public information from inside the locker room to inform a betting syndicate on undisclosed player injuries and team tanking strategies, prosecutors allege. Prosecutors filed the sports betting case involving the former NBA players as US v. Earnest last fall.

When Brooklyn federal prosecutors announced charges against Earnest last October, the announcement transpired on the same day that the office charged nearly three dozen individuals in a parallel illegal poker case. Earnest, along with Shane Hennen and Jones, are the only defendants charged in both. On Tuesday, prosecutors announced that Earnest is also set to plead guilty in the poker case, US v. Aiello.

One presumed ringleader, Marves Fairley, is also facing charges in a nationwide college basketball point-shaving scheme. In March 2023, Rozier, then with the Charlotte Hornets, allegedly informed Deniro Laster, a longtime friend, of his intentions to prematurely leave a game. Rozier departed a 23 March loss to the New Orleans Pelicans after nine minutes with an apparent foot injury.

Based on the information, Laster, Fairley, and Hennen, among others, used the intel to place more than $200,000 on wagers involving various “unders” tied to Rozier’s performance, according to prosecutors. Fairley, a professional sports betting tout, pleaded guilty to a slew of charges in May. Weeks earlier, Jones became the first defendant in the two cases to formally make a guilty plea.

Another NBA star enters the fold

One day after the conspirators allegedly effectuated the Rozier scheme, prosecutors charged the defendants with carrying out another involving an NBA game. On 24 March 2023, the Portland Trail Blazers entered a game against the Chicago Bulls with a 30-42 record. Portland had already been eliminated from playoff contention with 10 games remaining in the regular season.

At the time, Pro Basketball Hall of Fame guard Chauncey Billups served in his second season as head coach of the Blazers. Prior to the game, an individual identified by prosecutors as “Co-Conspirator 8” allegedly told Earnest that the Blazers planned to tank the contest. While Billups is not explicitly identified as “CC-8”, the fact pattern associated with the individual matches his description.

During the conversation, the co-conspirators allegedly informed Earnest that the Blazers planned to rest several top players, including an individual identified as “Player 1”. Before the information became available to the public, Fairley and his associates wagered more than $100,000 against the Blazers, court filings show. Four regular Blazers’ starters, including Damian Lillard and Jerami Grant, sat out of Portland’s 124-96 loss.

Separately, Billups is also facing charges in the illegal poker matter. Billups, whose trial is set for early 2027, has professed his innocence through his attorney Marc Mukasey.

More than a decade before the indictment in the sports betting case, Earnest was sentenced in 2008 to 151 months in prison on money laundering charges and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Peter Brill, a lead attorney for Earnest, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from iGB.