NEW YORK – A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty Wednesday to a sports betting scheme that ended the NBA’s tenure of Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter.
With Mahmud Mollah’s statement on Wednesday, three family members, including Porter, have publicly admitted their role in the scandal.
Porter withdrew from games early so that alert players could win bets in which he would rate fewer things than the bookmakers expected.
Porter, Mollah and Long Phi Pham have pleaded guilty to fraud conspiracy. Two other men were also charged and did not plead guilty.
Mollah, of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, will be sentenced May 2 in federal court in Brooklyn. He could face anything from a non-jail sentence to twenty years in prison.
His attorney, Andrew Levin, declined to comment Wednesday.
Porter performed better in summary and scored negative points in games on January 26 and March 20 before withdrawing from the games, stating that he was injured or in poor health.
According to a court complaint, Mollah impaired his knowledge of Porter’s March 20 plans to place bets that would have netted more than $1 million to split several of the conspirators, including a 24% share of the participant. But a company that had a bet became suspicious and prevented Mollah from accumulating much of the money.
The NBA eventually investigated and detained Porter for a year. The closest told a court he participated in the scam “to get out of large gambling debts.”
Porter awaits sentencing on December 18.
