(NewsNation) — A Brooklyn man who had been charged but not publicly named as a defendant in a federal wire fraud case that led the NBA to ban former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter for life surrendered Friday and was scheduled to make his initial court appearance in New York.
Ammar Awawdeh became the fourth person to be publicly identified in the case. Timothy McCormack, Mahmud Mollah, and Long Phi Pham were previously listed by name in a federal complaint involving the men placing wagers based on tips they received from a player about plans to leave NBA games early.
Until Friday, Awawdeh’s name was redacted from the federal complaint before he surrendered to authorities.
Porter has not been named publicly by prosecutors. However, details, including game dates that are included in the federal complaint that mention “Player 1,” line up with when Porter was banned by the NBA in April.
A league investigation revealed that Porter violated NBA rules by providing confidential information to sports bettors. The league determined that Porter also limited his own participation in games and bet on NBA games.
In an unredacted complaint released on Friday, Awawdeh is listed as a Brooklyn resident. Pham is also listed as a Brooklyn resident, while the complaint states McCormick lives in New York City and that Mollah resides in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors allege that the four men were part of a scheme to get “Player 1” to take himself out of games for them to win bets against his performance.
In one instance, the federal complaint states that “Player 1” sustained a purported eye injury during a game. The player was evaluated by a team doctor and diagnosed with a corneal abrasion. However, the complaint states that the player did not complain about the injury and was never placed on the NBA’s injury list.
The complaint states that four days later, “Player 1” communicated with the two of the defendants and indicated that he would be removing himself from the game, claiming he was injured. The player left the game after playing just four minutes without scoring.
The complaint states that there is no video evidence to suggest that the player sustained any contact to his eye nor did he reaggravate a previous injury,
McCormack won more than $33,000 in bets from that game, the complaint states.
In March, “Player 1” communicated with the men, according to the complaint, telling the group that he would be leaving that night’s game early due to illness. As part of the communication, the men agreed on a profit-sharing agreement for money made on bets made on the player’s performance that night, the complaint states.
Mollah’s bets on the March 20 game netted over $1.3 million, the complaint states. It said Pham, the player and Awawdeh were each supposed to get about a quarter of those winnings, and McCormack a 4% cut, before a betting company got suspicious and blocked Mollah from collecting most of the money.
According to the complaint, “Player 1” amassed significant gambling debts by the beginning of 2024, and Awawdeh prodded him to clear his obligations by doing a “special” — their code for leaving certain games early to ensure the success of bets that he’d underperform expectations.
After the NBA and others began investigating, the player warned Pham, Mollah and Awawdeh via an encrypted messaging app that they “might just get hit w a rico” — an apparent reference to the common acronym for a federal racketeering charge — and asked whether they had deleted “all the stuff” from their phones, according to the complaint.
NBA players, coaches, referees, and other team personnel are prohibited from betting on any of the league’s games or on events such as draft picks.
The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.
