Brooklyn man arrested in connection with betting scheme that appears to have involved banned NBA player

The FBI and federal prosecutors have arrested and charged a man for allegedly placing and coordinating bets with, based on the description in charging documents, former NBA player Jontay Porter.

Porter was kicked out of the league earlier this year for betting on games, passing information to players and citing illness to influence a bet, according to NBA league records and a copy of the criminal complaint filed Tuesday by the Brooklyn prosecutors.

The FBI said Long Phi Pham, aka “Bruce,” 38, of Brooklyn, was arrested Monday at JFK Airport after allegedly booking a one-way ticket to Australia after federal investigators attempted to arrest him. question.

On Tuesday, Pham was in federal court where he was ordered detained. He faces wire fraud charges. Three other people allegedly involved in the scheme remain at large, according to federal prosecutors.

The criminal complaint against Pham does not identify the NBA player's name, but charging documents say the player played just 4 minutes on Jan. 22, with three rebounds and an assist — stats that match to those of Porter for the day. It also says the player said he aggravated an eye injury, which Porter also claimed.

A description of a banned NBA player and why he was banned by the NBA also appears in the complaint and matches Porter.

Porter was not charged in that complaint.

Representatives for Porter did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear whether Pham had retained an attorney. No contact information could be found for him.

Charging documents say the gambler whose description matches Porter “ran up significant gambling debts” with Pham and others. The document states that one of the people still at large encouraged this player to clear his debts by “withdrawing early from certain games to ensure that side bets on [Porter’s] the performances were successful.”

Porter would have done just that.

“Video footage from the January 26 game does not show any eye contact by Player 1, nor any apparent re-aggravation of the eye injury,” prosecutors say, and he “did not subsequently complain to officials about the team's alleged eye injury after the January 26 game and played in his team's next game two days later.

Pham and the other defendants then allegedly bet on the game, netting them profits of more than $100,000.

The scheme allegedly repeated itself in March when Pham and the others met at an unnamed casino in Atlantic City to bet on the player whose description matched Porter. The player told them via digital messaging service Telegram that he would withdraw from the game on March 20 early, claiming he was ill, according to the documents.

Surveillance photos in the complaint allegedly show the defendants at the casino. The documents indicate that the player would receive a percentage of the profits by participating in the program.

When Pham was arrested at JFK, according to the FBI, he had “approximately $12,000 in cash; two cashier's checks totaling $80,000; a series of betting slips; and three cell phones.

If convicted, Pham's maximum sentence is 20 years in prison.