Six people have been indicted in a gambling scandal focused on the NBA.
Former pro basketball players Malik Beasley and Ed Davis are now facing charges, The Associated Press reported.
Beasley grew up in Alpharetta, Ga.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr said they and others “turned professional basketball into a criminal betting operation” and that betting rings “erode the integrity of American sports and victimize the sports-watching public.”
The indictment names six people:
- Beasley
- Davis
- William Brown
- Robert Gorodetsky
- Ernesto Plascencia
- Paolo Zamorano
The charges include wire fraud, conspiracy, bribery in sporting contests, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy.
The Department of Justice said that the scheme was to bribe Beasley to change his playing, then use that information to profit from illegal betting.
Nocella said the illegal bets were an “attempt to unlawfully earn hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
The news release from the DOJ called Davis, Beasley’s “gatekeeper,” to whom Beasley owed gambling debts. The agency said Beasley was bribed by the alleged co-conspirators by having his debts to Davis reduced or paid off.
One example of Beasley’s underperformance was the Feb. 27, 2024, game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Charlotte Hornets.
“As alleged, prior to the Bucks game against the Charlotte Hornets on February 27, 2024, Beasley informed Davis that Beasley intended to underperform with respect to points and overperform with respect to rebounding in the game. Beasley provided this information to Davis to obtain a promised bribe payment and for the purpose of enabling Davis and other co-conspirators to place wagers based on this non-public information. Davis subsequently disseminated the non-public information regarding Beasley to multiple co-conspirators, including Gorodetskty, Plascencia and Zamorano, to enable them to place fraudulent wagers. Plascencia then provided this same non-public information to Brown to enable him to place fraudulent wagers. Many of the fraudulent wagers were successful,” the DOJ said in the news release.
Other games involved the Bucks matchups against the Los Angeles Clippers and the Cleveland Cavaliers,
You can read the indictment here.
Beasley last played for the Detroit Pistons from 2024-2025, averaging 16 points. He is one of only five players with more than 300 3-pointers in a season, the AP reported.
Davis was a backup during his career. He and Beasley played together for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2020-2021 season.
They are not the only former players caught up in a gambling sweep.
Damon Jones was the first to plead guilty in a case that netted more than 30 cases, including mobsters and other members of the NBA community, the AP reported.
Jones was accused of selling or trying to sell insider information to bettors. He pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the AP.