Shane Hennen’s Guilty Plea Portends Potential Cooperation with Feds in Gambling Corruption Case

Shane Hennen, the purported central hub in three illegal gambling scandals involving NBA or college men’s basketball players, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to one of two federal charges in the Eastern District of New York “rigged poker” case. 

Hennen entered a plea deal on wire fraud conspiracy, but did not address the participation in illegal gambling charges in the alleged Mafia-backed poker scheme that ensnared former Portland Trail Blazers head coach and Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups. 

Hennen’s admission is the most high-profile in a recent spate of plea agreements either formally entered or telegraphed as forthcoming according to federal prosecutors. What remains to be seen is what – or who – prosecutors glean after flipping a prominent co-defendant like Hennen in exchange for a presumed lesser sentence.

Hennen is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 8. 

“Any defendant who agrees to plead guilty is typically willing to then cooperate and hopefully get a better deal with respect to sentencing,” Greg Brower, a former Assistant Director and Deputy General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told Gambling Insider.

The changes of pleas by Hennen, 40, and multiple co-conspirators in all four high-profile sports-related indictments the last two years suggest that these federal cases have been deemed water-tight by numerous unaffiliated defense attorneys, Brower said.

“It doesn’t surprise me to see these plea deals in any type of conspiracy case like this, where the evidence is strong,” Brower said.

If you read the indictments, the evidence appears to be strong. What the plea deals, I think, tell us is that defense lawyers who have looked at the evidence also think the evidence is strong. In an effort to kind of get in early with the goal of getting the best deal possible for their client, it doesn’t surprise me that some defense attorneys worked out plea deals, with the idea that if a defendant pleading guilty has some evidence to offer as a cooperating witness, that may enhance the way they’re treated at sentencing.”

Hennen’s legal team has not announced plea agreements regarding his alleged involvement in cases against former NBA player Terry Rozier on sports corruption charges and an NCAA point-shaving case. The self-described high-stakes gambler and tout was accused of being one of four that supplied rigged card-shuffling machines to the supposedly Mafia-backed Texas Hold’em games running out of New York as early as 2019, even participating as a member of the “cheating teams.”

Co-Defendants Play High-Stakes Musical Chairs With Pleas

Even with dozens having already changed pleas for deals in the cases involving “rigged poker”, NCAA point-shaving, and Rozier prop bet-manipulation, Hennen’s move could increase pressure on co-defendants who continue to assert innocence while their co-conspirators peel away.

“That is generally true, and there’s always some advantage to getting in early, but it depends on the evidence,” Brower explained. “If defense counsel looks at the evidence provided for the government and has no choice but to conclude that they’ve got apparently strong evidence based upon real witnesses who will be believable to a jury, well, that’s the biggest factor that ends up leading to a plea deal.”

Interestingly, the first athlete unearthed for sports corruption by the Department of Justice in this series of interlocked cases, former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter, has still not been sentenced despite pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in 2024. This could be in part because several of the federal sports corruption investigations have overlapped in terms of schemes and participants like Hennen. There could still be value derived from providing evidence that leads to more arrests.

“We don’t know what we don’t know,” Brower said, “and to the extent it’s a broader conspiracy or they’re related types of conspiracies ongoing or that happened in the past.

“We just don’t know whether or not the witnesses who are cooperating, including defendants who have agreed to plea, have knowledge of such other conspiracies and are sharing that knowledge with the government.”

Also by Brant James: As Women’s Sports Grow, So Do Chances of Gambling Scandal

Who’s Taken A Plea Deal So Far?

Jontay Porter (EDNY)

• Porter pleaded guilty in July, 2024 for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. 
• Long Phi “Bruce” Pham pleaded guilty in October 2024 to wire fraud conspiracy.
• Timothy McCormack pleaded guilty Jan. 16, 2025, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was sentenced to 24 months.
• Ammar Awawdeh pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery in July.

Rigged poker (EDNY)

Nineteen of 31 original defendants have pleaded guilty or agreed to do so. They include:

• Hennen pleaded guilty for participating in an illegal gambling business on Tuesday.
• Damon Jones, a former NBA player and assistant coach, pleaded guilty in April 2026 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
• Awawdeh pleaded guilty in July.
• According to a document submitted to the docket in July by U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Nelson Alvarez, Louis Apicella, John Gallo, Marco Garzon, Jamie Gilet, Shane Hennen, Horatio Hu, Zhen Hu, Nicholas “Fat Nick” Minucci, Michael Renzulli, Angelo Ruggiero Jr., and Julius Ziliani intend to plead guilty to wire fraud counts.

NCAA/Chinese Basketball Association Point-Shaving Case (EDNY)

• Jalen Smith, the first to change pleas, pleaded guilty in March to bribery, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud charges.
• Marves Fairley pleaded guilty in late May on charges of bribery/wire fraud.
• Bradley Ezewiro, Shawn Fulcher, and Dyquavion (Dequavion) Short plan to take plea deals according to court filings.
• Five as-yet-unnamed co-conspirator former players have agreed to plea deals, according to court documents.

Terry Rozier case (EDNY)

• Jones pleaded guilty in April 2026 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud 
• Fairley pleaded guilty in late May on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in the NBA case.

DOJ In It To Win It Before Going to Trial

Even considering pre-trial dismissals, acquittals and guilty verdicts in court, most federal cases, Brower said, result in plea agreements because the Department of Justice covets cases with a high probability of victory.

“It simply doesn’t bring cases that aren’t strong and aren’t based on evidence that they think is not just probable cause – which is the standard to indict, probable cause to believe a crime was committed,” he’s observed. “But the effective standard that DOJ lawyers use is, ‘Is there enough evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to get a guilty verdict?’, which requires guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Half of the six co-defendants in the Rozier corruption case have now pleaded guilty – since Hennen joined Marves Fairley and Jones.

Rozier recently changed counsel and there remains a previous motion to dismiss his case, arguing that the sharing of insider information does not constitute wire fraud. The DOJ followed the former Miami Heat player’s machinations with a superseding indictment accusing him of allegedly accepting a $100,000 bribe to convey to gamblers that he intended to underperform in certain statistical categories to win prop bets in a March 23, 2023.

Fairley also pleaded guilty for his part in the NCAA point-shaving scheme. 

Rozier, whom the NBA and Charlotte Hornets are attempting to keep at a distance, is set for trial is set for Feb. 8, 2027.

“Rozier still has a motion to dismiss pending,” Brower said. “He obviously believes he’s got a shot at getting the case dismissed, so we’ll see.”

Is a High-Profile Target the Ultimate Goal?

At the unsealing of the Rozier and rigged poker indictments in October, where 34 co-defendants were named, it became apparent that high-profile targets were also of value, with FBI Director Kash Patel personally highlighting the arrests of Rozier, Billups and members of several Mafia crime families.

“I think the government’s view of those various reputed or maybe more than reputed organized crime figures, the fact that they might be involved in something like this is not surprising to anybody,” Brower said. “Whether it’s the government lawyers or the public. Their complicity and involvement, I would suggest, is relatively predictable and ordinary.

“It’s obviously the alleged complicity and involvement of players, a coach, that’s what makes this really unusual. I think this is the main reason why this is getting so much attention.”

Attention has also naturally been cast upon the NBA and NCAA by media and a public demanding answers on how this happened, and how it can be avoided in the future. At play is whether skepticism will overwhelm fandom in the future as any questionable event becomes the grist of gambling conspiracy theories.

“It’s so important for the NBA and the NCAA, with the help of the DOJ, to get to the bottom of it,” Brower said. “Because again, we come to expect efforts like this by those who make a living through organized crime, but we do not expect to see otherwise legitimate actors like NBA players, coaches, college basketball players involved in this.”

Porter, a little-known journeyman, became the logo of player corruption before the indictments of the decidedly more famous Rozier, former Detroit Piston Malik Beasley, and former Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, none of whom have cut deals. A conviction at trial of one of these more well-known players wouldn’t necessarily be worth more than a plea, Brower said, in terms of deterrence.

“I think anytime that a high-profile person, a legitimate actor, like a player or a coach or a lead official, a referee, anybody who’s part of the establishment, that’s supposed to be above reproach, anytime you see an individual like that charged, that should send a huge message, very loud and clear message to others who are part of it, the legitimate organization, if you will,” Brower explained. “Guilty pleas serve the same purpose, only more so because now it’s not just an allegation, it’s defendants actually saying, ‘There’s enough evidence to convict me. I basically did it.’

“So I would submit that for the NBA’s purposes, whether someone decides to go to trial and is convicted or pleads guilty, it doesn’t really make a difference.”