(UnitedVoice.com) – In April, the NBA banned Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter for life after he violated its gambling rules. Now, a Brooklyn man has been arrested for taking part in Porter’s gambling scheme. The suspect allegedly bet on games he knew Porter would throw.
On April 4, the NBA announced that it had investigated allegations against Porter, a 24-year-old Missouri man who’d signed with the Canadian team last December, and found that he’d committed multiple violations of the association’s gambling rules. Some of the worst allegations involved Porter telling gamblers he would be dropping out of games, allowing them to place “under bets” — wagering that he wouldn’t meet player statistics for the game. Porter became the first active NBA player to be banned since 1954.
On June 3, New York police caught up with one of Porter’s suspected accomplices. Long Phi “Bruce” Pham, 38, allegedly worked with Porter to place under bets. Specifically, prosecutors say Porter told Pham he was going to fake an injury and take himself off court during the January 26 game between the Raptors and Los Angeles Clippers. Pham and other gamblers then placed a $10,000 bet that Porter would fail to meet three separate player stats. Porter came off just three minutes into the game — and Pham and his associates walked away with more than a million dollars between them. When police arrested him, he was about to get on a one-way flight from JFK to Australia.
Three days after Pham’s arrest, two more men, Mahmud Mollah and Timothy McCormack, were also arrested. Along with Pham, they’re charged with making $1.13 million from betting on Porter. Prosecutors say the three men had agreed to share their earnings with Porter, who may have owed them money, in exchange for him letting them know which games he planned to drop out of.
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