Terry Rozier, a professional basketball player accused of manipulating his performance in N.B.A. games, faces fresh allegations that he accepted an offer of a $100,000 bribe to leave a basketball game early, a decision that federal prosecutors say made gamblers tens of thousands of dollars in ill-gotten profits.
The new charges, detailed in an indictment unsealed on Thursday, add to Mr. Rozier’s legal troubles. He was charged last October for his role in what federal prosecutors in Brooklyn described as an insider-trading scheme that defrauded gambling companies.
Mr. Rozier, 32, along with five other defendants, two of whom have pleaded guilty, stands accused of using nonpublic information about N.B.A. athletes and teams to make fraudulent bets. He maintains his innocence. On the same day Mr. Rozier was arrested, prosecutors announced a separate indictment targeting illegal poker games run by the Mafia, which also featured N.B.A. figures.
Mr. Rozier was set to begin his 11th season in the N.B.A. when he was arrested last fall. He was placed on leave by the league and released by his former team, the Miami Heat, last month. He has made more than $160 million in his N.B.A. career.
The game that Mr. Rozier was bribed to leave, prosecutors say, took place on March 23, 2023, when he was playing for the Charlotte Hornets. In exchange for the bribe, Mr. Rozier agreed to leave the game against the New Orleans Pelicans, saying he had a foot injury. He told a childhood friend, Deniro Laster, of his plans.
Mr. Laster, prosecutors said, informed a number of sports bettors about Mr. Rozier’s plan. They wagered more than $200,000 on Mr. Rozier’s underperformance — including totals for his points, assists and 3-pointers — and made tens of thousands in profits, prosecutors said.
The indictment does not say who directly paid Mr. Rozier the bribe. But on Thursday, Marves Fairley, a gambling influencer charged in the scheme, pleaded guilty and said in court that he paid a player “to change their game performance.” That player was Mr. Rozier, David Berman, a federal prosecutor, told the judge.
Not all the bets hit. Because Mr. Rozier grabbed more rebounds than the betting lines set, he agreed to a cut in the bribe to $70,000, prosecutors said. After the game, Mr. Laster collected the illicit betting proceeds from Mr. Fairley and drove from Philadelphia to Charlotte, N.C., where Mr. Rozier and Mr. Laster counted the cash.
The new charges against Mr. Rozier are bribery in sporting contest and honest services wire fraud conspiracy, adding to criminal counts of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. Mr. Laster and Shane Hennen, a poker player and sports bettor, were also charged with the new bribery-related counts.
“I’ve never bribed anybody to underperform in any basketball game, ever,” Mr. Hennen said in an interview. “I don’t know Terry Rozier. I’ve never met him.” A lawyer for Mr. Laster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Rozier has sought to have the charges against him dismissed. In an April hearing before Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall, Jim Trusty, his lawyer, argued that the indictment charged Mr. Rozier with violating a sports book’s terms of use. That, he said, did not amount to committing wire fraud.
“The superseding indictment just confirms that our motion to dismiss was righteous — new charges, new theories, but all just an effort to make something stick,” Mr. Trusty said in a statement on Thursday.
The indictment came amid growing scrutiny of the influence of widespread, legalized gambling on American society and culture. Aided by partnerships with professional sports leagues, gambling companies have raked in billions during the era of betting.
In November, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged two pitchers on the Cleveland Guardians with sharing the type and speed of their future pitches with sports bettors, who then wagered on that information and turned a profit.
And in January, federal prosecutors in Philadelphia charged more than two dozen people with orchestrating a point-shaving scheme that targeted men’s college basketball and Chinese professional basketball. Two of the people charged in that scheme, Mr. Fairley and Mr. Hennen, have also been charged in the Brooklyn indictments. (On Thursday, Mr. Fairley also pleaded guilty to charges in the Philadelphia indictment.)
Supporters of widespread legalization say that regulating sports gambling has helped the authorities identify illegal schemes, like the one Mr. Rozier has been accused of participating in. But critics say that legalization has created more opportunities for illicit activity, and that federal indictments have not deterred insider trading in gambling markets.
Santul Nerkar is a Times reporter covering federal courts in Brooklyn.
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