Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Terrorism analyst and the man on the Chauncey Billups case
right now, Brad Garrett. First of all, Brad, thanks for
making time for us this afternoon. You're welcome, obviously here
in Denver. This story is resonating and really hitting hard
because Chauncey Billups is such a beloved part of the
Denver community for a I mean since high school. He
(00:22):
has been a standout basketball player here. Obviously, what is
the latest on this case against him. Let's let's start
with Chauncey Billups and then we'll talk about Rogier as well,
but let's start with Jouncy Billips in what you know?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Okay, so you know, we don't know a whole lot
just because the indictment just came out today. People were arrested. Obviously,
these are white collar type crimes, so I'm going to
I'm going to presume that everybody would get processed and
released on some version of the bond, So we'll start
with that. So I believe your coach is primarily involved.
(01:01):
These are my words not there sort of ragged poker games.
So in effect, the ability to use his name along
with other well known current former players, current former coaches
to lure. I assume the big rollers to games in Miami,
Las Vegas, Manhattan, they earned several places around the country
(01:23):
to play poker with these well known NBA folks, and
the problem is that the game was completely rigged. They
used apparently and these are common. You can buy these
that automatically shut shuffles the cards, but apparently you can
manipulate them. Are the ones they had you can manipulate,
so you basically know who had good hands and bad hands,
(01:47):
and you know, they maybe let the guy win here
and there, but by and large, one of the people
that's part of the scam would would consistently win. And
we're talking about a lot of games and several million
dollars that was taken. In the other component of this,
and again I don't have any details, is the indictment
(02:07):
claims that organized crime is involved in in I guess
operating this to a certain extent. So it's kind of yeah,
you know, beyond breaking the law, and now you've even
hooked up with organized crime, so it's it's really gotten
not a pretty face.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Well, I had a story that a listener actually sent
me that a couple of years ago on a podcast,
there was a professional gambler that came out in twenty
twenty three and said, yeah, I got invited to play
in the Chauncey Phillips game, but it was rigged. And
then he talked to people afterward that played in it,
and they said it was clearly rigged, and that within
(02:43):
the gambling community, professional gamblers, professional poker players knew to
be wary of those games. So let's talk for a
moment about Rosier. He's in a different category. What's going
on with that?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I'm not sure I understand you're ass category.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well, I mean, it seems to be directly related to
sports gambling, sports betting. I guess I should say.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, yeah, and the other component of these indictments, and
they don't lay out each individual. There's about thirty plus
people charging. This is one scenario I just gave you.
The second segment involves basically providing inside information, like a
player is hurt, is not going to play tonight, but
nobody knows that, and so people bet accordingly on the game,
(03:32):
or a player fakes an injury to leave the game
to change potentially the outcome, and then people change their
best accordingly. And apparently that's been going on for years. Again,
the number of at least in the basketball world, well
known people involved, So you have that. That's that's sort
(03:54):
of the second half. I don't know built this charge
in both of those are not.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
He's only charged in the poker game part of it.
That from what we understand. Yeah, let me as the
NBA made any kind of statement about this official statement,
as there been a press conference, how are they handling this?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I haven't heard Lenoy the other I think I read
five minutes before I came on with you that the
Portland had uh, you know, placed develops on administrative believe
of some sort. So in other words, he's out. I mean,
this is he couldn't let him keep coaching based on
which the legends of this indictment right right?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
You know, Brad, this is one of those things I
wish I could say that I was surprised, but with
the explosive rise in sports betting and betting on everything,
I mean, you can bet on on the prop markets,
you can bet on pretty much anything. Do you think
we're going to see guardrails maybe come in a little
bit harder around some of this, or is this going
(04:57):
to be a league thing that the leagues are individually
going to have to deal with the policies that are
going to have to lay out the law for their players.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, I think both, yeah, but I think it's pretty
I mean, obviously there's gazillions of dollars of online betting
that's just legitimate. Yeah, you know, it's not the best
thing for people to do, but that's a side issue,
but that it's legal, it's and in trying to monitor that,
you can imagine what that's like, trying to even remotely
(05:25):
monitor the number of sites you can go and bet
on this or that. So we'll see, but clearly, you know,
the legal have to do something about this. But you know,
beyond that, it's like, what are these people thinking. I mean,
you keep doing things like this, You're going to get
caught at some point, you know, And it's it's really
(05:45):
short term thinking and maybe a little bit of arrogance
that you know, nobody's going to really find it out.
But you know, based on the stories you're you're talking
about knowing gamblers that we knew these games were a scam.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, and that was two years ago that he said that,
so certainly not connected to today's indictments.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Well, who knows. Yeah, those of us connected or not.
I mean, they make a reference to Phillips back to
playing these rap poker games back in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, and the thing that gets me and maybe not
gets me, that's the wrong way to say it. It
would seem to me that if you were running an
illegal poker game, you were relatively certain that you weren't
going to be ratted out by one of the players, right.
I mean, that's like talk about a safe way to
rip people off, because people are not going to run
to the cops to complain about a crooked poker game.
It's just not going to happen. So I don't know,
(06:35):
it's a sad day for many many here in Denver.
Chauncey Phillips has just been such an important part of
the fabric of this community for a long long time.
We have people from his neighborhood that have already come
out and said forcefully, we're with Chauncey. So we're gonna
have to wait and see how all this unwinds. What
is the timeline on this, Brad, Do you know what
happens next?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Well, you know, there's a thing called the Speedy Trial Act. Yeah,
and unless somebody wait you know, within ninety days, basically
give or take, something's going to have to happen with
this case. Either he's going to work out a plead
agreement and plead the X and get y, or he's
going to go to trial, right and you know, going
to trial, I mean that that obviously won't won't occur
(07:17):
in the next ninety days, but with the clock will
be running for the case to move along at a
regular pace. You know. The other problem is because the
government shut down, basically the federal courser out of money.
So I don't know how that will impact. You know,
the arrangements are one thing is now only takes a
few minutes, but actual trials, a trial like this could
(07:37):
take a while. Yeah, so we'll see. But that's another
frustration that we're dealing with.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Brad Garrett with ABC, Thanks for your time today. I
appreciate the intel A.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
You're welcome to take care all right, have a great day.
Terrorism analyst and the man on the Chauncey Billups case
right now, Brad Garrett. First of all, Brad, thanks for
making time for us this afternoon. You're welcome, obviously here
in Denver. This story is resonating and really hitting hard
because Chauncey Billups is such a beloved part of the
Denver community for a I mean since high school. He
(00:22):
has been a standout basketball player here. Obviously, what is
the latest on this case against him. Let's let's start
with Chauncey Billups and then we'll talk about Rogier as well,
but let's start with Jouncy Billips in what you know?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Okay, so you know, we don't know a whole lot
just because the indictment just came out today. People were arrested. Obviously,
these are white collar type crimes, so I'm going to
I'm going to presume that everybody would get processed and
released on some version of the bond, So we'll start
with that. So I believe your coach is primarily involved.
(01:01):
These are my words not there sort of ragged poker games.
So in effect, the ability to use his name along
with other well known current former players, current former coaches
to lure. I assume the big rollers to games in Miami,
Las Vegas, Manhattan, they earned several places around the country
(01:23):
to play poker with these well known NBA folks, and
the problem is that the game was completely rigged. They
used apparently and these are common. You can buy these
that automatically shut shuffles the cards, but apparently you can
manipulate them. Are the ones they had you can manipulate,
so you basically know who had good hands and bad hands,
(01:47):
and you know, they maybe let the guy win here
and there, but by and large, one of the people
that's part of the scam would would consistently win. And
we're talking about a lot of games and several million
dollars that was taken. In the other component of this,
and again I don't have any details, is the indictment
(02:07):
claims that organized crime is involved in in I guess
operating this to a certain extent. So it's kind of yeah,
you know, beyond breaking the law, and now you've even
hooked up with organized crime, so it's it's really gotten
not a pretty face.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Well, I had a story that a listener actually sent
me that a couple of years ago on a podcast,
there was a professional gambler that came out in twenty
twenty three and said, yeah, I got invited to play
in the Chauncey Phillips game, but it was rigged. And
then he talked to people afterward that played in it,
and they said it was clearly rigged, and that within
(02:43):
the gambling community, professional gamblers, professional poker players knew to
be wary of those games. So let's talk for a
moment about Rosier. He's in a different category. What's going
on with that?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I'm not sure I understand you're ass category.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well, I mean, it seems to be directly related to
sports gambling, sports betting. I guess I should say.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, yeah, and the other component of these indictments, and
they don't lay out each individual. There's about thirty plus
people charging. This is one scenario I just gave you.
The second segment involves basically providing inside information, like a
player is hurt, is not going to play tonight, but
nobody knows that, and so people bet accordingly on the game,
(03:32):
or a player fakes an injury to leave the game
to change potentially the outcome, and then people change their
best accordingly. And apparently that's been going on for years. Again,
the number of at least in the basketball world, well
known people involved, So you have that. That's that's sort
(03:54):
of the second half. I don't know built this charge
in both of those are not.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
He's only charged in the poker game part of it.
That from what we understand. Yeah, let me as the
NBA made any kind of statement about this official statement,
as there been a press conference, how are they handling this?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I haven't heard Lenoy the other I think I read
five minutes before I came on with you that the
Portland had uh, you know, placed develops on administrative believe
of some sort. So in other words, he's out. I mean,
this is he couldn't let him keep coaching based on
which the legends of this indictment right right?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
You know, Brad, this is one of those things I
wish I could say that I was surprised, but with
the explosive rise in sports betting and betting on everything,
I mean, you can bet on on the prop markets,
you can bet on pretty much anything. Do you think
we're going to see guardrails maybe come in a little
bit harder around some of this, or is this going
(04:57):
to be a league thing that the leagues are individually
going to have to deal with the policies that are
going to have to lay out the law for their players.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, I think both, yeah, but I think it's pretty
I mean, obviously there's gazillions of dollars of online betting
that's just legitimate. Yeah, you know, it's not the best
thing for people to do, but that's a side issue,
but that it's legal, it's and in trying to monitor that,
you can imagine what that's like, trying to even remotely
(05:25):
monitor the number of sites you can go and bet
on this or that. So we'll see, but clearly, you know,
the legal have to do something about this. But you know,
beyond that, it's like, what are these people thinking. I mean,
you keep doing things like this, You're going to get
caught at some point, you know, And it's it's really
(05:45):
short term thinking and maybe a little bit of arrogance
that you know, nobody's going to really find it out.
But you know, based on the stories you're you're talking
about knowing gamblers that we knew these games were a scam.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, and that was two years ago that he said that,
so certainly not connected to today's indictments.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Well, who knows. Yeah, those of us connected or not.
I mean, they make a reference to Phillips back to
playing these rap poker games back in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, and the thing that gets me and maybe not
gets me, that's the wrong way to say it. It
would seem to me that if you were running an
illegal poker game, you were relatively certain that you weren't
going to be ratted out by one of the players, right.
I mean, that's like talk about a safe way to
rip people off, because people are not going to run
to the cops to complain about a crooked poker game.
It's just not going to happen. So I don't know,
(06:35):
it's a sad day for many many here in Denver.
Chauncey Phillips has just been such an important part of
the fabric of this community for a long long time.
We have people from his neighborhood that have already come
out and said forcefully, we're with Chauncey. So we're gonna
have to wait and see how all this unwinds. What
is the timeline on this, Brad, Do you know what
happens next?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Well, you know, there's a thing called the Speedy Trial Act. Yeah,
and unless somebody wait you know, within ninety days, basically
give or take, something's going to have to happen with
this case. Either he's going to work out a plead
agreement and plead the X and get y, or he's
going to go to trial, right and you know, going
to trial, I mean that that obviously won't won't occur
(07:17):
in the next ninety days, but with the clock will
be running for the case to move along at a
regular pace. You know. The other problem is because the
government shut down, basically the federal courser out of money.
So I don't know how that will impact. You know,
the arrangements are one thing is now only takes a
few minutes, but actual trials, a trial like this could
(07:37):
take a while. Yeah, so we'll see. But that's another
frustration that we're dealing with.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Brad Garrett with ABC, Thanks for your time today. I
appreciate the intel A.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
You're welcome to take care all right, have a great day.
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