A lawyer for NBA player Malik Beasley said Beasley is not a target of a Department of Justice investigation into sports gambling by players.
Steve Haney, who represents Beasley, said a lawyer from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York informed him of Beasley’s status within the investigation last week. Haney did not say if the Beasley investigation was related to the Eastern District’s investigation into the Jontay Porter betting scheme and allegations against Terry Rozier.
The Eastern District did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The office launched an investigation into Beasley earlier this year. Both the NBA and the Detroit Pistons, for whom Beasley played last season, were notified of it just days before the start of free agency in June. Detroit subsequently retracted a three-year, $42 million contract offer to Beasley.
At the time that the investigation became public, Haney said Beasley was a person of interest in the matter, but that no formal allegations had been made and no charges filed.
“It’s just flat out un-American to be deprived of the right to work based on a mere allegation,” Haney told The Athletic Friday. “I don’t care if you are a pro basketball player or a plumber. That’s not the presumption of innocence and that’s unconstitutional.”
ESPN was first to report that Beasley is not a target of this investigation.
The Eastern District has charged five people with conspiracy to defraud a sports betting company for an alleged scheme involving Porter, the former Toronto Raptors guard. Last April, Porter was banned from the NBA after the league said he bet on games and shared inside information with gamblers.
Four of the people have pleaded guilty, including Porter, who is awaiting sentencing after pleading to one count of wire fraud conspiracy.
Rozier became the focus of a federal investigation after an integrity monitoring company for potentially abnormal betting behavior flagged a March 2023 game, when he was still on the Charlotte Hornets. The NBA cleared Rozier of any wrongdoing, a league spokesperson said in April. The federal investigation is ongoing.
Beasley, 28, averaged 16.3 points per game for Detroit last season while hitting 41.6 percent of his 3s. The nine-year veteran has played for six different NBA franchises, averaging 11.7 points per game on 39.1 percent from 3.
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