At a time when former (for now) NBA player Terry Rozier has attempted to secure the dismissal of pending gambling-related charges against him, the government has beefed up its case.
Via David Purdum of ESPN, Rozier now faces two more charges: bribery in sporting contests and honest services wire fraud conspiracy.
Rozier allegedly agreed to a $100,000 bribe in exchange for manipulating his performance in an NBA game.
“The superseding indictment just confirms that our motion to dismiss was righteous — new charges, new theories, but all just a sad effort to make something stick,” Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, told Purdum.
Rozier has filed a motion to dismiss the pending fraud charges, arguing that a 2023 case from the United States Supreme Court determined that the federal fraud statute requires deprivation of an actual property right, and that it doesn’t apply where information that could help make economic decisions is not disclosed.
The government’s fraud theory against Rozier is based on the argument that he shared inside information with someone who used it to make a winning wager, but that Rozier failed to disclose the same information to the sportsbooks.
New charges can always be filed, as long as the statute of limitations has not expired. The question then becomes whether the case can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Rozier’s case has become one of the most prominent gambling scandals in the age of legalized sports betting. To date, the NFL has avoided any controversies regarding the misuse of inside information.
