A poker player whose name appeared in a 2023 cheating scandal has pleaded guilty on Wednesday, October 2, to wired fraud conspiracy for his central role in the insider betting scheme involving former Toronto Raptors power forward Jontay Porter.
Long Phi Pham ("Bruce"), age 38, was part of a group that bet heavily on Porter to under-perform in two Raptors games earlier this year. The basketball player owed the group some money and as a means to pay them back, he agreed to pull out of the games quite early, claiming he was injured or felt sick.
The nefarious scheme, had it been successful, would have earned Pham and his co-conspirators more than US$1 million from bets they placed via DraftKings and FanDuel, the official betting partners of the NBA. However, the sportsbooks froze the lion's share of the winnings when they detected suspicious betting patterns.
Porter Banned for Life
After an investigation by the NBA, Jontay Porter was kicked out of the league for life in April. Then in a federal court in July, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
He revealed that because he was heavily indebted to the group due to a gambling problem, it drove him to agree to the scheme and bench himself so conspirators could win bets.
Pham Arrested
Being charged with wire fraud conspiracy, a federal crime, Pham was arrested on June 3 by the FBI as he tried to board a one-way flight to Australia. He was carrying three cell phones, $80,000 in cashier's checks, and $12,000 in cash.
Pham denied trying to flee the country, claiming he was on his way to a poker tournament at the Star Casino in Sydney.
There was actually no ongoing major tournament festival at the Star that month, and it was unclear why he would travel to the other side of the world to participate in the casino's regular lineup of low-to-medium stakes events.
Allegations of Poker Cheating
In 2023, Pham was one of many poker players publicly accused of being a member of a ring of poker cheaters that allegedly stole high-stakes players out of millions of dollars in private home games in Los Angeles.
One of the players who claim he was cheated, ‘BlankCheckBen' Ben Lee, publicly called out Pham, along with Shane Hennen, Ye ‘Tony Mars' Shen, and others.
The games involving Pham allegedly ran from March to October 2023. Most of the victims were regulars on the Hustler Casino Live streamed podcasts, including Lee, Nik ‘Airball' Arcot, ‘Wes Side' Wesley Fei, and others.
The issue went unresolved, and the allegations against Pham remained unproven.
What Happens Next
Pham's three other co-conspirators - Ammar Awawdeh, Mahmud Mollah, and Timothy McCormac - are yet to enter a plea.
Pham has been released on a $750,000 bond posted by family members. He will be placed under certain restrictions, including home confinement and GPS monitoring. He now awaits sentencing, which has been scheduled on April 25, 2025. He faces up to 20 years in jail.
Source:
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2024/oct/02/man-pleads-guilty-in-betting-scheme-that-ensnared-/
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