On Tuesday, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced that it had arrested a Brooklyn man named Long Phi Pham for his participation in an illegal betting scheme involving Jontay Porter prop bets.
Pham was arrested for wire fraud on June 3 while attempting to board a one-way flight to Australia at John F. Kennedy International Airport. According to a complaint, he possessed $12,000 in cash; two cashier’s checks totaling $80,000; several betting slips; and three cellphones.
If convicted, the maximum penalty for wire fraud is 20 years in prison. In a press release, the Eastern District said that three of Pham’s co-conspirators have also been charged but remain at large.
Porter is not named in the complaint, but it is abundantly clear that “Player 1” is him. The two NBA games from which Pham and his co-conspirators profited occurred on Jan. 26 and March 20. In those contests, Porter, then playing for the Toronto Raptors, removed himself with previously undisclosed ailments minutes into each game, leading Pham and others to profit handsomely from betting the unders on his props.