Former NBA player Jontay Porter, banned from the North American professional basketball league for fixing sports bets, will be indicted in New York, according to a document released Wednesday by the Brooklyn prosecutor’s office. The document does not specify the charges against him but indicates that they are felony charges, not misdemeanors, which suggests the sentence he faces is significant.
A spokesman for Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace told AFP that Porter would plead guilty at a hearing set for July 10, without specifying the charge or charges. Four people have already been charged in the case. They are accused of collaborating with Porter to secure the outcome of several bets on the player, who was then playing for the Toronto Raptors.
More than a million dollars pocketed by his accomplices
The defendants allegedly bet on his playing time knowing in advance that he would ask to leave the field for health reasons, which allowed them to pocket, in total, more than a million dollars. Alerted by betting shops, the FBI (federal police) analyzed the messages and money movements between bettors on their cell phones. A majority of American states have legalized sports betting since a Supreme Court decision in 2018.
In April, the NBA decided to ban Jontay Porter, an undrafted player from the league for life after playing just 37 games in the 2020-21 and 2023-24 seasons. Porter, 24, is the younger brother of Michael Porter Jr., a major player for the Denver Nuggets, with whom he was crowned NBA champion in 2023. Despite having a modest trajectory in the NBA, the player has earned more than $2 million with the Memphis Grizzlies and the Toronto Raptors.
2024-07-04 08:06:08
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