An ex-enforcer for the Gambino crime household thinks the Mafia may have “one thing” on Chauncey Billups — and the NBA coach could also be as a lot of a sufferer because the gamblers he fleeced.
“For them to do that, they in all probability knew anyone and requested him for a favor . . . he’s received a spouse he’s dishonest on, they caught him sniffing coke, or no matter, they received him one way or the other,” John Alite theorized, although there isn’t a public proof to counsel he’s engaged in these behaviors.
Or the suspended 49-year-old Portland Trailblazers coach may have requested the mob for assist, Alite urged, after which discovered himself in over his head.
“Both they’re blackmailing him or he requested for a favor prior to now . . . they usually slowly use him after which they pull his neck, you realize, they choke him a bit of and inform him do that or else,” he mentioned.
The DOJ charged 31 individuals Wednesday — together with Billups, the Miami Warmth’s Terry Rozier and ex-Cleveland Cavalier Damon Jones — in an enormous unlawful playing bust involving the Gambino, Bonanno, Genovese and Lucchese crime households.
The FBI has arrested 31 individuals concerned in a rigged poker sport ring backed by the New York Metropolis organized crime households.
- Ernest Aiello — reputed Bonanno mobster
- Nelson “Spanish G” Alvarez
- Louis “Lou Ap” Apicella
- Ammar “Flapper Poker” Awawdeh
- Saul Becher — skilled poker participant
- Chauncey Billups — Portland Path Blazers coach, NBA Corridor of Famer and 2004 NBA champion
- Matthew “The Wrestler” Daddino
- Eric “Spooky” Earnest
- Lee Fama — skilled poker participant
- John Gallo
- Marco Garzon
- Thomas “Tommy Juice” Gelardo — reputed Lucchese mobster charged in 2013 for beating porn star girlfriend
- Jamie Gilet
- Tony “Black Tony” Goodson
- Kenny Han
- Shane “Sugar” Henne
- Osman “Albanian Bruce” Hoti
- Horatio Hu
- Zhen “Scruli” Hu
- Damon “Dee Jones” Jones — NBA participant from 1998 to 2009
- Joseph Lanni
- John “John South” Mazzola
- Curtis Meeks
- Nicholas Minucci
- Michael Renzulli
- Anthony Ruggiero Jr.
- Anthony “Doc” Shnayderman
- Robert “Black Rob” Stroud
- Seth Trustman
- Sophia “Pookie” Wei
- Julius Ziliani
The FBI accused Billups and Jones of serving as “face playing cards” to lure gamblers to rigged, mob-run card video games working out of 80 Washington Pl. in Greenwich Village.
Professional athletes and celebrities are sometimes drawn to the mob, the ex-Gambino button man mentioned, as a result of the underworld supplies pleasure of their high-profile lives.
“We used to stick with loads of actors, when John [Gotti] was round, DeNiro would come round, Steven Segal would come round, Mickey Rourke would come round,” he mentioned.
Alite, who spent 14 years behind bars for convictions involving six murders and not less than 37 shootings, mentioned the mob usually makes use of a mixture of coercion and presents to entrap individuals.
“They supplied girls and medicines, no matter they need,” he mentioned.
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Mafiosos have a “sluggish course of” for ensnaring in any other case trustworthy individuals into their clutches, he defined, including Billups and Rozier may have been groomed and finally pressured to take part within the card video games.
“You don’t simply dive in, you slowly work the man,” Alite mentioned. “I had a detective with me, Phil Baroni, he was a strait-laced cop.
“I began bringing him to Atlantic Metropolis, he favored to gamble, earlier than you realize it he turned my bookmaking associate, then he turned my drug associate, then he turned a killer with me.”
Alite dismissed the concept that Billups received concerned for the cash, claiming he was already wealthy sufficient that cash wouldn’t matter to him.
“It’s sort of ridiculous to suppose that he’s there simply to make $50,000, it simply doesn’t make a f–king little little bit of sense.”
Billups, by means of his legal professional Chris Haywood, has denied the allegations and vowed to struggle to clear his title.
“Anybody who is aware of Chauncey Billups is aware of he’s a person of integrity; males of integrity don’t cheat and defraud others,” Haywood mentioned in a press release.
Haywood, didn’t reply to The Publish’s request for remark.
