Lawyer for Jontay Porter says now-banned NBA player was ‘in over his head’ with a gambling addiction
Jontay Porter, the former Toronto Raptors forward, who was imposed a lifelong ban by the NBA due to a sports betting scandalwas “in over his head” with a gambling addiction, his lawyer said on Friday.
Jeff Jensen, a government investigative attorney in St. Louis, also said in a statement to The Associated Press that Porter is cooperating with investigators.
“Jontay is a good young man with a strong faith that will get him through this. He was in over his head in trouble because of a gambling addiction. He is undergoing treatment and has fully cooperated with police,” Jensen said. It was his first statement since a league investigation found Porter disclosed confidential information to sports bettors and gambled on games, including betting the Raptors would lose.
Also Friday, a fourth man was arrested in the scandal when Ammar Awawdeh, 32, turned himself in following the arrests of three co-suspects earlier this week.
A lawsuit accuses Awawdeh of pressuring an NBA athlete, identified only as “Player 1,” to settle gambling debts by leaving games early. The tactic, which the two called a “special,” would guarantee a payout for anyone who bet on underperforming in those games, the document said.
Using an encrypted messaging app, Awawdeh wrote early this year that he “forced” the player to do so and told him to “Take a screenshot of this,” according to the complaint.
Awawdeh, who helps run his family’s convenience stores in New York City, was charged and released on $100,000 bond for house arrest with ankle monitoring. His attorney, Alan Gerson, declined to comment on the allegations.
Porter is not charged in the case and is not named in the complaint. But details about Player 1 are consistent with those in an NBA investigation that resulted in his lifetime ban in April. The league discovered he was betting on NBA games in which he did not play and withdrew from at least one game so that a bet would return more than $1 million for a bettor who had been tipped.
Awawdeh and his co-defendants – Timothy McCormack, Mahmud Mollah and Long Phi Pham – used inside information of Player 1’s plans so that they or their family members could place lucrative bets on his performance in the Jan. 26 and March 20 matches, the complaint said.
Porter only played briefly on those dates before leaving the court complaining of injury or illness.
According to the complaint, a gambling company ultimately stopped Mollah from collecting most of his more than $1 million in winnings during the March 20 match.
The defendants, who are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, have not entered pleas. Their attorneys have declined to comment, except for McCormack’s attorney, Jeffrey Chartier, who said “no case is a slam dunk.”
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Haigh reported from Hartford, Connecticut.