NEW YORK — An attorney declined to comment Wednesday on the case against a New York man indicted over a sports betting scandal that cost a former NBA player Jontay Porter his career.
The lawyer, Michael Soshnick, also would not say whether his client, Long Phi Pham, knows the former Toronto Raptors forward. banned from the NBA in April. A league investigation found that he tipped off bettors about his health and then reported illness to leave at least one game and cash out on some bets. Porter also placed his own bets on NBA games in which he did not play, the league said.
Pham and three co-defendants, whose names were redacted in a complaint in federal court in Brooklyn, are accused of conspiring to defraud a sports betting company.
The complaint says they placed bets based on information from an NBA athlete – identified in the complaint only as “Player 1” – about his plans to claim illness or injury to limit his participation in two games. The alleged conspirators gambled that the player would not meet expectations in his performance, and they won when he left the games after just a few minutes, the complaint said.
The game dates and other details match those cited in the NBA investigation into Porter, and the complaint quotes an NBA press release about it.
Porter did not comment on the NBA’s findings when they were released. Up-to-date contact information could not immediately be found for Porter or any agent or other representative he may have. Prosecutors have not said whether they are investigating him.
Pham, who also uses the first name Bruce, is a professional poker player, according to his lawyer. Authorities said Pham was arrested Monday when the 38-year-old Brooklyn resident boarded a flight to Australia with about $12,000 in cash.
His attorney said it was a planned trip to a poker tournament, but prosecutors portrayed it as an attempt to flee the U.S. after Pham learned of their investigation days earlier.
“We’ll see if they pick me up at the airport when I try to leave the country,” he texted an acquaintance, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Weintraub. He argued Wednesday against granting Pham bail.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak agreed to release him to home confinement on a $750,000 bond, which included an ankle monitor, four family members and a friend signing the bond and setting up two houses.
But Pollak mused: “I sit here today with very serious doubts as to whether I am making a big mistake.”
Pham will remain in custody until at least Thursday while paperwork and other procedural steps are completed.
“My client will abide by every condition of his release,” Soshnick said outside court.