Former NBA players Malik Beasley and Ed Davis and an NBA agent are among six defendants indicted Monday on charges related to an alleged sports gambling scheme that targeted at least four games during the 2023-24 season, according to a federal indictment released Monday.
Davis and co-defendants Rob Gorodetsky, Ernesto Plascencia and William Brown were arrested Monday, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Beasley and defendant Paolo Zamorano, who was Davis' agent, were not in custody as of Monday morning.
Steve Haney, Beasley's attorney, said that they have coordinated with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the ex-player to voluntarily surrender this week.
"An indictment is not proof of guilt or evidence. It is merely a charge of probable cause," Haney said in a statement to ESPN. "The investigation was a year and a half long and we maintain Malik's innocence of all charges."
According to the indictment, Beasley lost millions of dollars gambling during his nine-year NBA career. He agreed to manipulate his statistics ahead of at least four games during the 2023-24 season while he was with the Milwaukee Bucks so that the co-conspirators could wager on the stats, according to the indictment.
The indictment included examples of wagers totaling to more than $75,000 with net winnings of at least $121,000.
Beasley received bribes from co-conspirators, often used to reduce or pay off debts he owed Davis, prosecutors allege in the indictment. The two were teammates on the Minnesota Timberwolves during the 2020-21 season. Davis was known in the scheme as Beasley's "gatekeeper," prosecutors allege.
"Only way you can beat Vegas is sports betting," Davis texted Beasley a month in December 2023, according to the indictment. "...We can make some good money."
A month later, Beasley informed Davis that he intended to underperform on rebounding in a Jan. 26, 2024 game between the Bucks and Cleveland Cavaliers, according to the indictment. "[T]he defendants and their co-conspirators placed numerous fraudulent wagers totaling tens of thousands of dollars conditioned on defendant Malik Beasley's 'under rebounds' prop bets," the indictment alleges. Beasley finished with three rebounds, under the betting line of 3.5 rebounds at some sportsbooks.
Federal prosecutors allege the scheme also targeted a Feb. 27, 2024 game between the Bucks and Charlotte Hornets, a March 10, 2024 game between the Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers, and a March 21 game between the Bucks and Brooklyn Nets.
"As alleged, Malik Beasley allowed himself to be bought and altered his gametime performance to line pockets of Ed Davis and his other co-conspirators," FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr., said in the release announcing the indictments. "The FBI continues to dismantle fraudulent schemes that erode the integrity of any institution, including our nation's professional sports leagues."
Ahead of the game against the Clippers, Beasley told Davis he planned to grab more rebounds than the over/under line of around 3.5 at sportsbooks, according to the indictment. Beasley recorded his fourth rebound in the final second of the game.
Defendant Brown texted Plascencia after the game, commenting on Beasley's last-second rebound, according to the indictment: "He got 1 rebound with 1.1 second left. ... He pushed [Bucks teammate Pat] Connaughton outta the way."
After Beasley did not perform as agreed in the March 21 game against the Nets, Plascencia demanded that Davis either compensate the conspirators for their losses or get Beasley to manipulate his performance in future games, according to the indictment. Davis initially agreed to continue the scheme, but backed away after news broke four days later that then-Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter was under investigation for similar activity, prosecutors allege.
"We are aware of the indictment and are working to ensure that appropriate due process rights are protected," the National Basketball Players Association told ESPN in a statement.
ESPN has reached out to the NBA for comment.
Davis, a lottery pick by the Raptors in 2013, played 12 seasons in the NBA, earning approximately $47 million during his journeyman career with eight teams. His attorney John Adams of law firm McGuireWoods could not be immediately reached.
A former NCAA Division I college basketball player and current coach with a Division II men's team is among the unnamed co-conspirators in the indictment.
Monday's indictment does not appear to be directly connected to similar gambling indictments from the Eastern District of New York, involving NBA players Porter, Terry Rozier and Damon Jones, according to multiple sources. Beasley and Davis are the fifth and sixth current or past NBA players to be named in federal gambling indictments in the last two years.
Beasley has struggled financially in recent years. A judge ordered him to pay $1 million to his former agency last March, which alleged in a lawsuit that Beasley had failed to pay back a $650,000 marketing advance. He was evicted from his high-rise apartment in Detroit last summer after his landlord sued him for a total of $21,505 in unpaid rent, according to court records.
News of the federal investigation into Beasley broke as he was negotiating a three-year, $42 million deal with the Detroit Pistons last June. Beasley earned nearly $60 million during his NBA career.
"Bribery and insider betting schemes like this one involving former NBA players and a current NBA player agent who exploited inside NBA information for profit erode the integrity of American sports and victimize the sports-watching public," Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in the release.
