Report: Suspended NBA star Jontay Porter facing federal felony charge
Court documents filed in Brooklyn earlier this week suggest that Porter will be hit with a felony charge for his participation in a sports betting scandal
Ex-Toronto Raptors star Jontay Porter is expected to be charged with a federal felony in relation to the betting scandal that prompted his suspension from the NBA.
According to ESPN, a criminal information sheet was filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn on July 2.
The document is related to the prosecution of four men charged with scheming to cash in on tips from a player about his plans to exit two games early — the same crime Porter is accused of.
In April, an investigation conducted by the NBA found that Porter had provided bettors with a health status update, before those bettors wagered on him underperforming.
The 24-year-old would cite illness as a reason to leave games early, handing those who were aware of the information an illegal advantage. The league also discovered that Porter himself had bet on NBA games that he did not play in.
The NBA’s investigation found that on March 20, ahead of the Raptors’ clash with the Sacramento Kings, one bettor placed an $80,000 parlay prop bet with an online sportsbook that Porter would underperform his props, which would have returned $1.1m.
Three minutes into that game, Porter withdrew through illness.
A similar situation occurred three months prior, with Porter hitting under on points, rebounds and assists.
All four of the men charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and have appeared in court but have not yet entered pleas.
The four embroiled in the scandal — Ammar Awawdeh, Timothy McCormack, Mahmud Mollah and Long Phi Pham — are all accused of using prior knowledge so that they or their relatives could wager winning bets.
As per court documents, the player involved is referred to as “Player 1”, though multiple details match the NBA’s investigation into Porter.
The player is believed to have owed “significant gambling debts” to Awawdeh, who encouraged the athlete in question to settle all debts via a “special”, which was the aforementioned deal that saw Porter tip them off over his early exit.
In an encrypted message sent earlier this year, Porter is alleged to have told the four men charged: “If I don’t do a special with your terms. Then it’s up, and u [sic] hate me and if I don’t get u [sic] 8k by Friday you’re coming to Toronto to beat me up.”
Mollah, McCormack, and a relative of Awawdeh reportedly placed the bets as per the agreement with Porter, though the sportsbook involved stopped Mollah from collecting the majority of his more than $1m in winnings in relation to the March 20 game, according to the complaint.
After news of the NBA’s investigation broke, Porter is believed to have messaged Pham, Mollah, and Awawdeh and express his fears that all involved could be hit with a ‘RICO’ — an acronym for a federal racketeering charge under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act — before asking whether others had deleted all relevant information from their phones.
Porter, who is the first active NBA player to be expelled from the league for gambling since 1954, could face a minimum five-year sentence if he is convicted.