On Tuesday, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced that it had arrested a Brooklyn man named Long Phi Pham for his participation in an illegal betting scheme involving Jontay Porter prop bets.
Pham was arrested for wire fraud on June 3 while attempting to board a one-way flight to Australia at John F. Kennedy International Airport. According to a complaint, he possessed $12,000 in cash; two cashier’s checks totaling $80,000; several betting slips; and three cellphones.
If convicted, the maximum penalty for wire fraud is 20 years in prison. In a press release, the Eastern District said that three of Pham’s co-conspirators have also been charged but remain at large.
Porter is not named in the complaint, but it is abundantly clear that “Player 1” is him. The two NBA games from which Pham and his co-conspirators profited occurred on Jan. 26 and March 20. In those contests, Porter, then playing for the Toronto Raptors, removed himself with previously undisclosed ailments minutes into each game, leading Pham and others to profit handsomely from betting the unders on his props.
But according to the complaint, Pham and his co-conspirators knew Porter planned to exit each game early, as Porter had agreed to play along with their scheme to pay off “large gambling debts” owed to some of the co-conspirators.
In a text message mentioned in the complaint, Pham wrote to Porter, “Screenshot this … Me [redacted] born [redacted] is forcing [Player 1] to do this.”
In response, Porter texted, “If I don’t do a special with your . Then it’s up. And u hate me and if I don’t get u 8k by Friday you’re coming to Toronto to beat me up.”
Pham’s arrest comes after an NBA investigation found that Porter, the brother of Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr., violated league rules by disclosing confidential information on his injury status to sports bettors.
Porter also violated league gambling rules by betting on several NBA games while employed by the Raptors, including ones involving his own team. He was banned for life by the NBA for these infractions on April 17.
Concerns about a RICO charge 2o1i5r
According to the complaint, “a co-conspirator placed a $10,000 parlay bet through Betting Company 1 on the ‘under’ for Player 1’s three-pointers, assists, and steals” before the Jan. 26 game.
After Porter removed himself from that game early, the bet was successful, netting the relative a profit of $75,000. Additionally, a co-conspirator placed a $7,000 parlay bet through Betting Company 1 on the “under” for Porter’s three-pointers, points, assists, and rebounds, ultimately netting a profit of $33,250.
A “Betting Company 2” is identified elsewhere in the complaint, which reads, “Since 2021, Betting Company 1 and Betting Company 2 … have been the co-official sports betting partners of the NBA.”
It has been widely reported that DraftKings was one of these betting companies.
Prior to the March 20 game, Pham and his co-conspirators met at an unidentified Atlantic City casino, where they placed several bets on the under on Porter’s props and made off with “over $1 million in profits.”
After identifying the suspicious betting activity on March 20, the betting companies reported it to the International Betting Integrity Association and the NBA. In turn, it was also reported to the FBI.
In a group chat on April 4, the complaint alleges that Porter wrote to Pham and his conspirators that they “might just get hit w a rico” and asked if they’d “delete[d] all the stuff” from their phones.
“I believe these messages refer to Player 1’s concerns that he and certain of the co-conspirators would be criminally investigated for, among other things, violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and needed to delete any evidence on their personal cell phones,” wrote FBI Special Agent Dominic Mariani in the complaint.
