Banned NBA player Jontay Porter will be charged in betting case, court papers indicate

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter will be charged with a federal felony connected to the sports betting scandal that spurred the NBA to ban him for life, court papers indicate.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn filed what's known as a criminal information sheet on Tuesday. The document doesn't specify a court date or the charge or charges, but it does show the case is related to an existing prosecution of four men charged with scheming to cash in on tips from a player about his plans to exit two games early.

The Associated Press sent voice and email messages Wednesday to Porter's St. Louis-based lawyer, Jeff Jensen. He said last month that Porter had been “in over his head due to a gambling addiction” but was getting treatment and cooperating with law enforcement.

Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace's office declined to comment on the new developments.

An NBA investigation found in April that Porter tipped off bettors about his health and then claimed illness to exit at least one game, creating wins for anyone who'd bet on him to underperform expectations. Porter also gambled on NBA games in which he didn’t play, once betting against his own team, the league said.

The four men charged last month appeared in court but haven't yet entered pleas. They're charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and were released on bonds in various amounts.

A court complaint against those four — Ammar Awawdeh, Timothy McCormack, Mahmud Mollah and Long Phi Pham — accused them of using prior knowledge of an NBA player’s plans so that they or their relatives could place winning bets on his performance.

The complaint identified the athlete only as “Player 1,” but details about him and the game— and a quote from an NBA news release — matched up with the league’s probe into Porter.

According to the complaint, the player owed “significant gambling debts” to Awawdeh, who encouraged the athlete to settle them with a “special”: intentionally exiting games so that bettors in the know could successfully wager on him falling short of what sportsbooks figured he’d do.

“If I don’t do a special with your terms. Then it’s up," the player responded in an encrypted message early this year, according to the complaint. “And u hate me and if I don’t get u 8k by Friday you’re coming to Toronto to beat me up.”

The player told some of the four already-charged defendants that he would claim health problems to take himself out of games early on Jan. 26 and March 20, the complaint says.

Porter played only briefly on those dates before leaving the court, complaining of injury or illness. In both games, his points, rebounds and assists were below the betting line for his performance.

Mollah, McCormack and a relative of Awawdeh had bet the “under” and made out, though a betting company ultimately stopped Mollah from collecting most of his more than $1 million in winnings on the March 20 game, according to the complaint.

After the NBA and others began investigating, the player messaged Pham, Mollah and Awawdeh that they “might just get hit w a rico” — an apparent reference to the common acronym for a federal racketeering charge — and asked whether they had deleted “all the stuff” from their phones, the complaint notes.

Porter’s salary for this year was around $410,000. The 24-year-old averaged 4.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 26 games this season, including five starts. He also played in 11 games for the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2020-21 season.

FILE - Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter (34) looks to pass in the first half of an NBA basketball game Monday, March 11, 2024, in Denver. Court papers indicate that former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter will be charged with a federal felony connected to the sports betting scandal that spurred the NBA to ban him for life. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

FILE - Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter lookson during the first half of the team's NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls, Jan. 18, 2024, in Toronto. Court papers indicate that former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter will be charged with a federal felony connected to the sports betting scandal that spurred the NBA to ban him for life. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — There is a Lowe family reunion this weekend in Texas, where the mother of big league brothers Nathaniel and Josh is getting to watch her sons play against each other for the first time since being diagnosed with brain cancer last year.

Wendy Lowe was unable to attend at Tampa Bay last October when Nathaniel Lowe and the Texas Rangers played against younger brother Josh and the Rays in an AL Wild Card playoff series. She was going through chemotherapy and other medical appointments at the time.

The family was able to be together when the teams met for a series in Florida the first week of this season, but neither brother played then because both were on the injured list with oblique strains.

“It's been awesome to see her perseverance through everything, to continue fighting every single day,” Josh Lowe said before the series opener Friday. “I definitely think one of the main reasons she does it is because of my brother and I.”

Josh said he and his brother had their parents, their maternal grandmother, some cousins and other extended family in Texas for the series that opened Friday night with a 3-0 win by the World Series champion Rangers. They all planned to get together after Saturday's game at the the new house Nathaniel moved into during the offseason.

“They knew they were coming here, especially because of the fact that we didn't play the first time,” Josh said. “Everybody made a decision to come here and spend some time together.”

The Lowe brothers began their pro careers together in the Tampa Bay minor league system. Nathaniel, who turns 29 on Sunday, was traded to Texas in December 2020, so they first shared a major league field in that series last season.

Their parents attended that series in Florida in June of last season. Wendy wore a custom, split baseball jersey — one half a white Rays uniform, the other in Rangers blue, with “Lowe” written across the back.

In the series opener Friday night, Nathaniel had an RBI single in the third inning that put Texas up 3-0. After striking out his first two at-bats as the Rays' designated hitter, 26-year-old Josh singled in the sixth inning and then was being held on by his brother at first base.

On the shelf in Josh's locker in the visiting clubhouse before the series were two bobbleheads commemorating the Gold Glove Nathaniel won last season. The bobbleheads were giveaways at a Rangers game on Tuesday night, when he hit two home runs.

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Tampa Bay Rays' Josh Lowe, left, safely steals second base against Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager, right, during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Arlington, Texas, Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Texas Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe (30) and his brother Tampa Bay Rays' Josh Lowe, left, laugh at first base after Josh singled during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Arlington, Texas, Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Texas Rangers' Nathaniel Lowe, left, and Tampa Bay Rays' Josh Lowe, third from left, talk to the media along with their parents Wendy Lowe, second from left, and David Lowe, back right, prior to a baseball game June 9, 2023, in St. Petersburg, Fla. There is a Lowe family reunion this weekend in Texas, where Wendy is getting to watch her sons play against each other for the first time since being diagnosed with brain cancer last year. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson, File)

Texas Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe (30) and his brother Tampa Bay Rays' Josh Lowe, left, laugh at first base after Josh singled during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Arlington, Texas, Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero)