Former Philly resident named in illegal NBA betting, rigged poker game indictments
A man with ties to Philadelphia and western Pennsylvania is one of the dozens of defendants named in two separate indictments on an illegal sports betting scheme and rigged poker games involving former NBA players and coaches as well as four of the five most notorious Mafia families, the FBI revealed.
On Thursday, Oct. 23, FBI Director Kash Patel announced charges against multiple defendants in connection to two separate illegal gambling-related cases. The first indictment charged six men with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy for allegedly using inside information from NBA players and coaches to profit from illegal betting.
The defendants include Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, former NBA player Damon Jones and Shane Hennen, also known as “Sugar,” a 40-year-old Las Vegas resident who previously lived in Philadelphia and western Pennsylvania.
Between December 2022 and March 2024, the six defendants used non-public information about upcoming NBA games to place fraudulent sports wagers for profit and then laundered the proceeds, the FBI revealed.
Hennen and the co-conspirators allegedly obtained insider information from Jones, Rozier and other NBA players and coaches before distributing that information through a network of bettors. The bettors then placed wagers through online sportsbooks and retail betting outlets while falsely representing that their wagers complied with the betting companies’ rules, according to the indictment.
One of the incidents Hennen was allegedly involved in took place during an NBA game on March 23, 2023, according to the indictment. Rozier – who played for the Charlotte Hornets at the time – tipped off one of his friends that he planned to leave the game early due to an injury, investigators said. Rozier allegedly gave the information to his friend, allowing him to place wagers. Hennen and other co-conspirators then used that confidential information to place and direct more than $200,000 in wagers predicting Rozier’s “under” statistics, according to the indictment. Rozier left the game after nine minutes allowing many of the bets to be paid off and generating tens of thousands of dollars in profits, investigators said.
According to the indictment, on March 28, 2023, one of the defendants traveled to Philadelphia to collect the proceeds from Hennen. Another defendant also traveled to Philadelphia that day to collect the money from the scheme, investigators said.
Hennen was also involved in an illegal sports betting scheme connected to two Toronto Raptors games on Jan. 26, 2024, and March 20, 2024, investigators said. During those incidents, former NBA player Jontay Porter, who played for the Raptors at the time, told other co-conspirators that he would leave the games early due to injuries, allowing them to place bets based on the insider information, according to the indictment. The information was then relayed to Hennen who informed another co-conspirator, officials said. Hennen then allegedly placed bets on Porter’s “unders” in connection with the games through a network of straw bettors.
Hennen was also one of 31 defendants named in a second indictment unsealed on Thursday related to a criminal scheme to rig illegal poker games at various locations in New York City, East Hampton, New York, and ten other states across the country. The other defendants once again include Damon Jones, Portland Trailblazers coach and former NBA player Chauncey Billups, and members and associates of the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese organized crime families, investigators said.
Investigators said the Mafia members fixed high-stakes illegal poker games while NBA players acted as “Face Cards” to lure unsuspecting victims in.
The cheating technology involved in the games included rigged shuffling machines, according to the indictment. Investigators said they were altered with concealed technology to read the cards in the deck, predict which player had the best poker hand and relay that information to someone off site. Other technology included electronic poker chips that could read cards placed on the table, card analyzers that could detect which cards were on the table and playing cards with markings only visible to players with certain contacts or sunglasses.
The NBC10 Investigators reached out to the lawyer representing Hennen in connection to the case that allegedly involved Jontay Porter and the Toronto Raptors games. We have not yet heard back. Court records show Hennen was out on bond in connection to that case.
Hennen also has several state and federal charges in the past, including drugs and DUI offenses, as well as misdemeanors related to gambling devices, according to court records.
Hennen’s Instagram page shows he was active Wednesday afternoon, posting about the NBA and NCAA. He also posted to his Instagram stories on Thursday bets for the Thursday Night Football matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Chargers.
NBC10 spoke with Hennen’s brother who said his sibling “gambles like a maniac.”
“He does his own thing and I do mine,” the brother said.
The brother also told NBC10 he wasn’t familiar with Hennen’s activities in Philadelphia, only knowing that he lived there for four years. The indictment related to the fraudulent wagering scheme also lists two other co-conspirators from Pennsylvania, including one of Hennen’s relatives.
