Months after Jontay Porter admitted to feigning injury to manipulate a series of prop wagers, a pro poker player pleaded guilty Wednesday for his role in the brazen scheme.
Long Phi Pham, also known as “Bruce,” pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court to wire fraud conspiracy. Pham made the appearance months after he was apprehended by federal authorities while attempting to board a one-way flight to Australia. A day later, Pham was charged with conspiring with several others to defraud a sports betting company by wagering on under props concerning an NBA player’s performance.
Porter, a former center with the Toronto Raptors, pleaded guilty in July to similar charges. The younger brother of Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr., he manipulated the outcome of at least two of his games during the 2023-2024 NBA season.
The center, who received a lifetime ban from the league, also admitted to conspiring with a sports betting syndicate, which initially made over $1 million on the wagers. Pham and three others were charged with recruiting Porter to conspire in the plot. Charges are pending against the other co-conspirators in the case: Timothy McCormack, Mahmud Mollah and Ammar Awawdeh.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Pham admitted that he conspired to use “inside information” — including that Porter planned to leave games early — to facilitate numerous bets on Porter-related wagers.
Feigning Injury to Extinguish Debt
Saddled with considerable gambling debts, Porter was encouraged by Awawdeh to clear his losses through the scheme, according to a federal complaint. The NBA player faced allegations that he deliberately underperformed in two games last season, the first on Jan. 26 against the Clippers.
He also manipulated the outcome of several props on March 20 when he went scoreless against the Kings. Porter left the court after just three minutes, finishing 0-for-1 from the field.
Before the Kings game, Awawdeh advised Porter to leave the court early to ensure that the props would hit. In the first game, he left early with an eye injury; in the next, he departed with an unspecified injury.
"Pham and three other men were charged in June with plotting to cash in on from a player's secret plans to claim illness to pull out of two games early."
Man pleads guilty in betting scheme that ensnared ex-NBA player Jontay Porterhttps://t.co/xA8wKhbB09
— Alfonso Straffon 🇨🇷🇺🇸🇲🇽 (@astraffon) October 2, 2024
Prior to the Kings’ game, three defendants — Pham, Awawdeh and Mollah — joined Porter on a Telegram chat. There, the four defendants agreed on a profit-sharing arrangement if the bets were successful. The four agreed to split 96% of the profits, court filings show, with McCormack set to receive the remaining 4%.
The syndicate also placed an $80,000 wager on Porter-related props that carried a $1.1 million payout. The operator subsequently froze the payout, according to several media reports.
Broad Sentencing Guidelines
When Pham was arrested for wire fraud on June 3, he was attempting to board a flight to Australia from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. At the time, he possessed $12,000 in cash, two cashier’s checks totaling $80,000 and three cell phones.
Michael Soshnick, an attorney for Pham, told the New York Post that his client planned to play in a poker tournament in Sydney, but registration for the tournament had already concluded, according to a prominent poker outlet.
Pham is scheduled to be sentenced on April 25 by Brooklyn Federal Court Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall. The judge will have wide latitude in handing down a sentence, as Pham could avoid jail time or receive a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. Based on federal sentencing estimates, however, he may receive a sentence of around four years.
Authorities have arrested a man allegedly connected to former Raptors guard Jontay Porter in a broader illegal betting scheme.
Long Phi Pham, who goes by Bruce, was detained at JFK Airport on Monday as he tried to board a one-way flight to Australia.
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— Front Office Sports (@FOS) June 5, 2024
Federal prosecutors did not comment Wednesday following Pham’s plea. Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, noted in June that the prosecution serves as a warning that fraud and dishonesty in professional sports “will not be tolerated.”
Members of the FBI’s New York Field Office joined Peace over the summer in announcing the charges against Pham. In underscoring their severity, James Smith of the FBI proclaimed that “there is no 'over/under' when intentionally circumventing rules for financial gain.”
Also on Wednesday, Mollah's change of plea was referred to Magistrate Judge James R. Cho, who presided over Porter's plea hearing.
Porter is scheduled to be sentenced in Brooklyn federal court on Dec. 18. Porter may face 41 to 51 months in prison based on sentencing guidelines. Less than a week after his plea, a judge denied Porter's request to relocate to Europe to play pro basketball in Greece.
