Jontay Porter pleads guilty in NBA betting scandal case

NEW YORK — Former NBA player Jontay Porter pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a federal criminal case related to the betting scandal that got him banned from the league earlier this year.

The former Toronto Raptors center pleaded guilty at his arraignment in New York federal court and is expected to be released on $250,000 bail.

His lawyer previously said Porter was cooperating with authorities while receiving treatment for a gambling addiction.

Court documents showed that the case against Porter is linked to an ongoing prosecution of four other men who have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud but have not yet entered pleas.

The men are accused of conspiring to take advantage of an NBA player’s information that he was going to leave the court two games early. They or their relatives used that information to place big winning bets on the athlete’s poor performance in those games, according to a court complaint filed when they were indicted in June.

The complaint does not name the player, but the details are consistent with an NBA investigation that led to Porter’s ban from the league this spring. The league found he had bet on NBA games and given bettors confidential information about his health.

In court Wednesday, Porter said he agreed to retire early from games to free himself from heavy gambling debts so he and his co-conspirators could win bets on his performance.

“I know what I did was wrong, illegal, and I am deeply sorry,” he said.

Porter is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 18. He faces between three and a half and four years in prison. He will also have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution, as well as possible fines.

According to the complaint, one of the four men pressured the player to settle his gambling debts by retiring early from matches so that bets on his poor performance would pay off.

In a message responding to the man’s instructions, the player wrote that if he didn’t carry out the plan, “you hate me and if I don’t give you $8,000 by Friday, you will come to Toronto to fight me.”

After warning certain men, the player pretended to be injured or ill and withdrew from the Jan. 26 and March 20 games after only a few minutes on the field, the complaint said.

Porter played only briefly on those dates before complaining of injury or illness and leaving the games. His points, rebounds and assists in both games fell short of bookmakers’ expectations.

After the NBA and others began investigating, the player texted some of the men to tell them they “might as well get hit with rico,” an apparent reference to the common acronym for a federal racketeering charge under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, according to the complaint filed against them. The player also asked the men if they had deleted “all data” from their phones.

The NBA’s investigation found that Porter not only left at least one game for the sake of bettors, but also bet on NBA games he didn’t play. He even bet against his own team once, the league said.

Porter, 24, averaged 4.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 26 games this season, including five as a starter. He also played 11 games for the Memphis Grizzlies during the 2020-21 season.

His NBA salary was around $410,000.