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- Ex-NBA player Ed Davis was arraigned in Brooklyn federal court Tuesday morning
- Davis pled not guilty for his alleged role in a sports betting scandal centered around former Detroit Piston Malik Beasley
- Davis was released on a $100,000 bond
Former NBA player Ed Davis was arraigned in U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York this week and entered a plea of not guilty for his alleged role in a sports betting scandal centered around former Detroit Piston Malik Beasley.
According to Lauren Conlin, a reporter for Los Angeles Magazine, Davis was arraigned Tuesday morning and pled not guilty before being released on a $100,000 bond.
Beasley and co-defendant Paolo Zamorano were both arraigned on July 1 at U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York and also entered pleas of not guilty for their roles in the alleged illegal sports betting ring.
Game Manipulation Centers Around Scandal
A Brooklyn federal court unsealed an indictment on June 29. Six defendants, including Beasley and his former NBA teammate Davis, were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, bribery in sporting contests, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy for their alleged roles in a gambling scheme to bribe Beasley to manipulate certain game performances.
The gambling ring allegedly used this non-public information to profit off illegal sports betting activity on his performances.
Beasley also pled not guilty to the charges earlier this month. He and Zamorano were both released on $100,000 bonds.
The indictment also names co-conspirators William Brown, Robert Gorodetsky, and Ernesto Plascencia as individuals who would use the non-public information to place “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bets on Beasley’s performances.
According to the indictment, Beasley, as member of the Milwaukee Bucks during the 2023-2024 NBA season, agreed with former NBA teammate Davis (Davis and Beasley both played for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2020-2021) ahead of certain games that he would either underperform or overperform relative to over/under sports betting lines for certain statistical categories.
Davis allegedly acquired bribes for Beasley to manipulate his performance and the information was used by the other charged individuals to place illegal bets on his performance.
In return for his manipulation, Beasley either received the afformentioned bribes from the co-conspirators or had his personal gambling debts to Davis reduced or paid off.
If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment on the wire fraud conspiracy counts, 20 years imprisonment on the money laundering conspiracy count, and five years imprisonment on the bribery in sports contests count.
“Bigger Conversation” About Sports Betting Industry
Beasley and his attorney, Jason Goldman, stood outside the court following his arraignment and issued a brief statement.
Conlin posted a video of Beasley’s lawyer outside of the court.
“He looks forward to fighting. He’s fought every day. He’s presumed innocent and that has to mean something still obviously. There’s a bigger conversation here about the industry, individuals and institutions profiting billions of billions of dollars and fueling addiction. A larger, broader conversation needs to happen at some point. Mr. Beasley respects everyone’s privacy, he wants to move on with his life. He’s a professional. He obviously has widespread family and fan support. That’s all we’ll say for now. We’ll address the rest in court and this is only the very beginning of things. An arrest means nothing. An indictment means nothing and that has to mean something. He’s presumed innocent. Today is a formality and we look forward with moving on with the case,” Goldman said.