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Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment this week accusing former NBA players Malik Beasley and Ed Davis of fixing games for profit, and most of the attention focused on the two well-known names. The list of six co-defendants also included a figure with deep ties to the gambling world, Robert Gorodetsky, a former poker player who reinvented himself as the Instagram high roller “Big Rob.”
Prosecutors listed him in the case alongside Beasley, Davis, William Brown, Ernesto Plascencia, and current NBA player agent Paolo Zamorano. They charged Gorodetsky with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bribery in sporting contests, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud. The indictment reveals that he allegedly directed others to place wagers on his behalf, with his largest profit from one of the allegedly rigged games being about $77,188.
Authorities arrested Gorodetsky and six other defendants on June 29, the same day prosecutors unsealed the indictment in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Each defendant faces up to two decades in prison if convicted on the wire fraud and money laundering counts and an extra five years for the bribery count.
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Gorodetsky a Poker Grinder Turned Influencer
Gorodetsky played cards long before the federal charges and Instagram fortune. According to a Chicago Sun-Times account of his earlier legal troubles, school officials suspended him from high school in Winnetka, Illinois, for taking money from classmates through poker games and running a gambling hall on campus.
He dropped out of the University of Arizona in 2011 after his freshman year to pursue the full-time poker lifestyle. Gorodetsky grinded tournaments for about three years, with lifetime live earnings amounting to about $170,000.
Investigators put him away on a federal fraud conviction shortly thereafter.
Gorodetsky’s First Federal Case
Gorodetsky started posting on social media under the moniker “Big Rob,” and he started documenting big bets and a life of luxury full of cars, private jets, stacks of cash, and appearances with celebrities.
In a USA Today profile in December 2017, he said he would wager about $350,000 on a typical NFL Sunday. He eventually drew the scrutiny of the FBI, which led federal prosecutors in Chicago to charge him in January 2020 with wire fraud and filing a false return.
They alleged that he had swindled about $9.6 million from an investor, whose daughter had dated Gorodetsky. He spent most of the money on his lavish lifestyle and sports bets, rather than investing the money as the victim believed. Gorodetsky, then 28, quickly pleaded guilty and received a 28-month prison sentence in 2021.
How Gorodetsky’s Most Recent Scheme Allegedly Worked
Beasley and Davis sit at the center of the case, as prosecutors allege that the former Minnesota Timberwolves teammates cooked up a prop-betting scheme. Beasley played for the Milwaukee Bucks in 2023-24 when the indictment says he agreed ahead of certain games to underperform and occasionally overperform, relative to prop lines. He would give this inside information to Davis, whom the defendants allegedly knew as Beasley’s “gatekeeper.”
Davis, prosecutors say, passed the tips down the chain. According to the Justice Department, he gave information to co-conspirators, including Gorodetsky, Plascencia, and Zamorano, so they could place bets. Plascencia then allegedly told Brown. The group placed hundreds of thousands of dollars in wagers across multiple sportsbooks, and many of them succeeded.
The indictment singled out four Bucks games from that season. These included a game in January against the Cavaliers, a February clash with the Hornets, a March contest against the Clippers, and another game that month against the Brooklyn Nets.
Gorodetsky placed bets big enough to move the betting lines, according to a text message exchange in a group chat documented in the indictment. In the exchange, Plascencia told Gorodetsky, “Rob you making insane amount stop it. You move the lines every time.”
Prosecutors believe that the scheme started unraveling after Beasley didn’t deliver on an “under rebounds” bet against the Nets, which led one co-conspirator to demand repayment for the group’s losses.
Latest Sports Betting Indictments Part of a Wider Crackdown
The Beasley indictment forms the latest thread in a wide-ranging federal investigation around gambling and the use of insider information in the NBA. Beasley and Davis became the fifth and sixth current or former players named in such cases over the past two years.
Terry Rozier, who most recently played for the Miami Heat, awaits trial in the same Eastern District on charges that he told a friend he would leave a March 2023 game early so gamblers could bet on his props. He has pleaded not guilty, and the court has set the trial for February 2027.
Former Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter pleaded guilty in 2025 to a federal wire fraud conspiracy charge, and longtime NBA veteran Damon Jones pleaded guilty in April 2026 in a related matter. Prosecutors also charged Jones and former NBA guard-turned-coach Chauncey Billups in a separate case involving allegedly rigged mafia-linked poker games.
Beasley’s attorney Steve Haney has called the indictment a one-sided charging document and said that his client maintains his innocence. Beasley expects to surrender and appear for arraignment in Brooklyn this week. Zamorano’s lawyer has called the charges unfounded.
The NBA, through spokesman Mike Bass, said it is reviewing the indictment and will continue cooperating with authorities, noting that game integrity remains its priority. The case marks another set of criminal charges for the one-time poker player Gorodetsky, whose entry into the game has spiraled into multiple alleged felonies now.
Image credit: Gregory Varnum/Wikimedia Commons (license)
