Lawyer: Jontay Porter was 'overwhelmed' by his gambling addiction

Jontay Porter, the former Toronto Raptors forward who was banned for life by the NBA over a sports betting scandal, was “overwhelmed” by his gambling addiction, his lawyer said Friday.

Jeff Jensen, a lawyer handling government investigations in St. Louis, also said in a statement provided to The Associated Press that Porter was cooperating with investigators.

“Jontay is a good young man with a strong faith that will help him get through this. He was overwhelmed by a gambling addiction. He is undergoing treatment and has cooperated fully with law enforcement,” said Jontay. Jensen said.

It was his first statement since a league investigation found Porter leaked confidential information to sports bettors and bet on games, including betting on the Raptors to lose.

Also on Friday, a fourth man was arrested in connection with the scandal as Ammar Awawdeh, 32, turned himself in following the arrest of three co-defendants earlier this week.

A court complaint accuses Awawdeh of pressuring an NBA athlete, identified only as “Player 1,” to pay off his gambling debts by leaving games early. The tactic, which both men called “special,” would guarantee a payout to anyone who bet on their underperformance in these games, according to the document.

Using an encrypted messaging app, Awawdeh wrote earlier this year that he was “forcing” the player to do it and told him, “Screenshot of this,” the complaint states.

Awawdeh, who helps run his family's convenience stores in New York, was arraigned and released on $100,000 bail and placed under house arrest with ankle monitoring. His lawyer, Alan Gerson, declined to comment on the allegations.

Porter is not charged in the case or named in the complaint. But the details about Player 1 match those of an NBA investigation that resulted in his lifetime ban in April. The league discovered that he had bet on NBA games that he did not play in and withdrew from at least one so that one bet would pay out more than $1 million to a bettor who had been warned.

Awawdeh and his co-defendants – Timothy McCormack, Mahmud Mollah and Long Phi Pham – used their prior knowledge of Player 1's plans so that they or their relatives could place lucrative bets on his performance during the January 26 matches and March 20, according to the complaint.

Porter played only briefly on these dates before leaving the field complaining of injury or illness.

A betting company ultimately blocked Mollah from collecting most of his winnings of more than $1 million from the March 20 game, according to the complaint.

The defendants, charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, have not pleaded guilty. Their lawyers declined to comment, except for McCormack's lawyer, Jeffrey Chartier, who said “no case is a decisive victory.”