A Brooklyn man was busted for allegedly teaming up with a former Toronto Raptors forward — who was banned for life for sports gambling — to place bets on games he knew the disgraced NBA player was going to throw, the feds said Tuesday.
A Brooklyn man was busted for allegedly teaming up with a former Toronto Raptors forward — who was banned for life for sports gambling — to place bets on games he knew the disgraced NBA player was going to throw, the feds said Tuesday.
Long Phi Pham, 38, also known as “Bruce,” was nabbed Monday while trying to board a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Australia on a one-way ticket, according to a complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court.
He is accused of working with Jontay Porter, 24, to place “prop bets” — also known as a proposition, or a wager placed on a player’s performance, like betting on the over or under of a certain statistical category such as points or rebounds.
Federal prosecutors allege that Porter had racked up large gambling debts in the beginning of the year to co-conspirators, and was encouraged to clear those debts by throwing games in order for certain bets to hit.
In this case, Porter, a journeyman between the Raptors and their G-League affiliate, allegedly told Pham that he was going to take himself out early from the Jan.
