Eric Earnest, the lead defendant in the Brooklyn sports betting case, is expected to plead guilty this month, with a hearing set for 22 October — two days after the NBA regular season tips off. The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced the scheduled plea on Tuesday.
Earnest, 54, is accused of passing confidential information to a betting syndicate. Prosecutors allege the group of conspirators sought to defraud several commercial sportsbooks, while NBA players manipulated prop bets on their own statistics. He faces charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Marutollo is handling the case.
How the scheme worked
Prosecutors named four sportsbook operators they say were defrauded but did not identify them. Co-defendants in related proceedings include former NBA players Terry Rozier, Jontay Porter and Damon Jones. Over the 16 months to March 2024, Earnest and his co-conspirators allegedly fed the syndicate non-public locker-room information on player injuries and team plans to tank games. In March 2023, Rozier, then with the Charlotte Hornets, is said to have told his friend Deniro Laster he intended to leave a game early. Rozier exited a fixture against the New Orleans Pelicans on 23 March after nine minutes; Laster, Marves Fairley and Shane Hennen wagered more than $200,000 on unders in Rozier's markets. The next day, with the Portland Trail Blazers at 30-42 and out of playoff contention, a person prosecutors call 'co-conspirator 8' allegedly told Earnest the team planned to lose to the Chicago Bulls. Fairley and his partners put more than $100,000 against Portland before the information was public. Four Blazers starters, including Damian Lillard and Jerami Grant, sat out; Portland lost 96-124. Fairley pleaded guilty to several counts in May. Jones did so weeks earlier, the first defendant in either case to do so. Earnest is also expected to plead guilty in the US vs Aiello illegal poker case. In 2008 he was sentenced to 151 months in prison for money laundering and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
