Professional athletes have been more and more concerned with gambling-related controversies over the previous few years.
But these scandals have principally been about sports activities betting scandals. For instance, Jontay Porter obtained a lifetime ban for betting on his personal video games and outcomes.
But now knowledgeable boxer is dealing with allegations that contain fixing underground casino games.
The FBI alleges boxer Adrien Broner was concerned with fixing craps video games involving NBA gamers in 2019. The bureau claims the previous world champion in 4 completely different weight courses collected $6.5 million from the scheme, together with taking $1.5 million from a present NBA All-Star.
“CW-1 (a cooperating witness) told authorities about a large buy-in dice game in L.A. in June 2019,” investigators famous. “The game involved a professional boxer, identified only as A.B., A.B.’s associates and several prominent NBA players. According to CW-1, A.B. and his associates fixed the game, cheating the NBA players out of millions of dollars using ‘teased’ dice.”
Broner’s Gambling Scam Came To Light Inadvertently
A.B. was later revealed to be Broner, in keeping with reviews. The allegations got here to gentle final week as a part of a federal investigation of Eugene “Big U” Henley, an alleged chief of the Crips road gang with hyperlinks to the hip-hop music world.
Investigators have accused Henley of homicide, kidnapping, theft, extortion, and fraud, and he now faces fees below the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
After that cube sport, FBI particular agent Andrew Roosa stated that Henley ordered a few of his associates to “rough up” the boxer “and to get the money back from him on behalf of the cheated NBA players.”
The FBI alleges Henley supplied “protection” for skilled athletes and musicians. The Broner allegations and whole investigation may presumably be a thorny situation for the NBA, linking gamers not solely to unlawful playing but in addition to an alleged underworld determine who’s accused by the FBI of working a “mafia-like organization” that used hyperlinks to road gangs “to intimidate businesses and individuals,” in keeping with the FBI.
Along with Henley, a number of different associates had been additionally arrested in latest weeks. He has denied the allegations towards him.
“I never made no athlete, no rapper give me nothing,” Henley noted recently. “They reach out to me because they feel a connection to me and my neighborhood for whatever reason.”
Broner has not commented on the allegations. In different NBA-related information, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier is now the main focus of a federal investigation for manipulating statistics throughout a sport in March 2023, when Rozier was a member of the Charlotte Hornets.
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