Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty on Nov. 24 to charges stemming from a rigged poker games case.
Billups, who was arrested on Oct. 23, has been charged with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.
The alleged scheme, which began in at least 2019 and stretched throughout the United States, involved members of the Genovese, Gambino, and Bonanno crime families.
Billups’s attorney, Chris Heywood, denied that Billups was part of the alleged crimes, which allegedly defrauded victims out of $7.15 million.
“To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his Hall of Fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game,” he said after Billups appeared in federal court in Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 23….