No escape

The authorities have charged two more individuals as part of the Jontay Porter NBA betting scandal. The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York revealed Thursday that Mahmud Mollah and Timothy McCormack are facing conspiracy to commit wire fraud charges.

authorities believed was trying to flee the country with a one-way ticket to Australia

They posted $50,000 bonds after appearing for an arraignment in the Brooklyn Federal Court. This comes off the back of the arrest of Long Phi Pham, who authorities believed was trying to flee the country with a one-way ticket to Australia.

Pham secured his release with home detention on Thursday by posting $750,000 bail after his lawyer argued that he was going to Sydney for a poker tournament at the Star Casino and not trying to evade the authorities. Another individual, whose name was redacted in court documents, is also facing charges.

Big wins

The Toronto Raptors’ Jontay Porter had allegedly built up a major gambling debt with the charged individuals. To repay it, they told him to exit games early so he wouldn’t hit the over on certain individual prop bets. The group profited by more than $1m betting on unders in two games in January and March.

The biggest win was for the game in March against the Sacramento Kings in which Porter left the action after less than three minutes, claiming he was ill. The 24-year-old Mollah staked $80,000 on a parlay for the under side of Porter’s steals, blocks, three-pointers, rebounds, and assists, leading to a $1.04m profit.

Prosecutors believe that McCormack was to get a 4% cut of the winnings, with Porter, Pham, Mollah, and the unnamed defendant to share the rest. The sportsbook ultimately blocked Mollah from withdrawing the majority of the winnings.

The other game was against the Los Angeles Clippers and McCormack’s $7,000 parlay yielded a return of $33,250. The pair charged on Thursday also placed a number of other bets.

Catching the culprits

The sportsbooks that accepted the wagers became suspicious and informed the International Betting Integrity Association, which in turn told the FBI. The NBA also became aware of the matter and launched its own investigation.

While the court documents don’t specify names, they do mention that the operators were official partners of the NBA. Only DraftKings and FanDuel currently have such an agreement with the league.

Porter messaged an encrypted group chat with the suspects in April after he learned about the NBA investigation, saying that they could be facing racketeering charges. He double-checked that everyone had deleted the evidence trail from their phones.

Porter claims that the men threatened him with physical harm if he did not go through with the plan. While he has received no charges as of yet, the NBA gave him a lifetime ban from the sport.