NEW YORK — Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty Monday to two federal charges in his first appearance in federal court. Billups was arraigned at a Brooklyn courthouse after he was arrested last month as one of 31 defendants in a wide-reaching indictment that alleged he was part of a rigged poker game scheme backed by the Mafia.
He was released on a $5 million bond, secured by his Colorado home and signed by his wife and one of his daughters, who came to court in support.
Billups, dressed in a neat gray suit and white shirt with starched collars, barely spoke during his two hours in court. The Hall of Famer was afforded only a dozen or so words in front of a federal judge, most of them a “yes” in responses to questioning.
Billups and Damon Jones, another defendant in the indictment, both appeared at the court Monday, which also served as a status update on the case at large. Jones walked by Billups before the hearing began but they did not exchange eye contact, even as Jones sat behind Billups for a few minutes.
While they both are alleged to have acted as lures in the poker scheme — former professional athletes used to bring in potential victims — and face similar charges, they are also in a different place now. Jones was also arrested and charged in the federal indictment that alleged illegal sports gambling on NBA games; Billups was not named in the filing, though there is a co-conspirator whose description closely matches his while he was the Portland Trail Blazers head coach. He is no longer in that role after he was placed on unpaid leave by the NBA last month.
Jones was released on $200,000 bond, secured by his parents’ home, and has a court-appointed attorney, while Billups has retained trial lawyer Marc Mukasey, who once represented President Donald Trump. They and the other 29 individuals charged all squeezed into a ceremonial courtroom Monday to sit through a status update on their case.
“I want things to start by September of next year,” federal judge Ramon Reyes, who is overseeing the case, said during the hearing. “Do whatever you have to get it ready to go.”
Federal prosecutors say that Billups participated in at least two rigged poker games and was paid $50,000 after one in 2020; the money was sent to him through an intermediary who has also been charged. A prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said there were 25 rigged games identified.
A prosecutor for the Eastern District told the judge that “some” of the people charged are negotiating plea deals.
Billups will likely next appear in court on March 4, 2026, the date of the next status hearing for the case.
He left the courthouse Monday without a word, walking out with two bodyguards, his family and Mukasey beside him as they entered a waiting black Mercedes Benz sprinter van, with cameras and media trailing them.
As they walked to the van, a bicyclist zoomed by in front of them.
“What’s up, Chauncey,” he said. “The Blazers need you.”