The United States Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York dropped a bombshell on Tuesday.
Federal agents arrested one of Jontay Porter's alleged "co-conspirators" as he was trying to flee on a one-way ticket to Australia.
They charged Long Phi Pham, also known as "Bruce", with attempting to defraud a sports betting company. Three other co-conspirators have yet to be charged.
As if that wasn't enough, some absurd details from the Porter betting scandal came to light. Let's take a look at the three most ridiculous things we learned from the charges documents.
1. "You might just get hit with a RICO"
According to the complaint, on April 4, "Player 1 wrote to the group that they “might just get hit w a rico” and asked if the group chat participants had “delete[d] all the stuff” from their personal cell phones."
The text was about two weeks before Porter got permanently banned from the NBA.
It is now clear Porter had known the evidence would amount to not only harsh penalties from the NBA, but also a possible investigation from federal authorities.
2. Porter was in a deep hole
The complaint alleges that Porter was in gambling debts with the alleged co-conspirators that were difficult to get out of. "As demonstrated in text messages, cell phone application records, and wire transfer records, among other evidence, by the beginning of 2024, Player 1 had amassed significant gambling debts to, among others, the defendant . encouraged Player 1 to clear those debts by engaging in the Player 1 “special,” i.e., withdrawing from certain games prematurely to ensure that under prop bets on Player 1’s performance were successful."
Porter sent a message that he was worried the alleged co-conspirators would come to Toronto and beat him up.
3. Porter was set to make 24% of the profits for March 20 bets
Although the scheme appeared to have started with Porter working himself out of a hole, it appears the second game, on March 20, was for everybody to make significant profits.
According to the records, Porter was set to make 24% of the profits for the bets from the group on March 20, "The agreement contemplated, in sum and substance, that PHAM and Player 1 would each approximately receive 24% of the profits and (redacted) would receive approximately 4% of the profits."
The group was set to make over $1.2 million from the bets they placed before their accounts were suspended.
