Terry Rozier will face additional charges related to the basketball player soliciting and receiving bribes during an alleged gambling scheme.
Assistant U.S. attorney Kaitlin Farrell revealed in court on Monday that the government had “developed evidence that Mr. Rozier solicited and accepted a bribe” and that prosecutors will present the charges to a grand jury, The Athletic reported.
The charges will be filed in mid-May, and the NBA will be the victim of the scheme in which Rozier allegedly committed sports bribery and honest service fraud.
Jim Trust, Rozier’s attorney and a partner at Ifrah Law, said that he had been informed by prosecutors two hours before the Monday hearing of the possibility of superseeding charges.
Rozier is facing two federal wire fraud charges after he was arrested and indicted in October for his role in a sports betting scheme, where he allegedly told Deniro Laster that he would exit a game early in March 2023 while he was playing for Charlotte.
Laster is then alleged to have sold that info to sports bettors.
The scandal and arrest of Rozier, along with others, was a black eye for the NBA and cast a pall over the sport.
Monday’s hearing had been scheduled to address a motion to dismiss Rozier’s initial charges, but word of the possible superseeding indictment took center stage — and the judge did not rule on the motion.
“Our motion to dismiss is based on the idea that they picked an invalid legal theory to prosecute Terry Rozier,” Trusty said to ESPN. “We’ll see what they do to try to fix that in the superseding indictment, but I expect we’ll have problems with it.”
Seven men were charged by federal prosecutors last October in relation to the alleged scheme.
Damon Jones, who is a former NBA player and assistant coach, was among those charged and he is set to plead guilty to charges related to the case on Tuesday before a federal judge.
Jones will also plead guilty to charges related to a case involving a rigged poker game that involved former Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
