By Karl Plume
(Reuters) – Former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter will face a federal felony charge in a case related to the sports gambling scandal that earned him a lifetime ban from the NBA, according to a court filing seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
An “information sheet” filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn on Tuesday cited the related case as one charging four men with conspiring to cash in on bets that Porter would miss certain performance targets in two games while knowing that he planned to exit early for alleged health reasons.
The filing did not detail the specific charge or charges against Porter or any trial date, but projected the length of the trial at less than six weeks.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn declined to comment.
A criminal complaint filed last month against four men – Ammar Awawdeh, Timothy McCormack, Mahmud Mollah and Long Phi Pham – did not identify Porter by name but contained known accusations against him and quoted an NBA press release announcing his ban.
The complaint said the four co-conspirators made more than $1 million on the games by betting that Porter would not hit specified statistical targets.
Prosecutors said Porter played just four minutes in a Jan. 26 game against the Los Angeles Clippers before exiting with an alleged eye injury, and three minutes in a March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings before he said he was ill.
In banning Porter, the NBA said he also placed 13 bets on league games, including multi-game parlay bets that included one in which he wagered that the Raptors would lose.
(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
