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Betting influencer pleads guilty to rigging NBA, NCAA games, bribing players
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- Betting influencer pleads guilty to rigging NBA, NCAA games, bribing players
A social media influencer who serves up advice on sports betting and romance pleaded guilty Thursday to his role in two sweeping basketball game-fixing schemes involving NBA stars, the NCAA and the Chinese Basketball Association.
Marves "Vezino Locks" Fairley — who was still selling $60 betting tips this past Tuesday on Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference finals — could face roughly eight to 10 years behind bars when he's sentenced in February.
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His plea came just hours before the feds unsealed new allegations against former Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, charging him with taking a $100,000 bribe from Fairley and others to leave a 2023 game early because of a purported injury.
Fairley's guilty plea in Brooklyn Federal Court covers two separate cases.
One, brought by Brooklyn prosecutors, alleges he, fellow influencer Shane Hennen and others conspired with former Cleveland Cavaliers player and coach Damon Jones and Rozier. The other case, brought by the feds in Pennsylvania in January, alleged he and Hennen colluded with dozens of NCAA players to make sure their teams didn't cover the point spread, and recruited former Chicago Bulls player Antonio Blakeney to help them fix Chinese Basketball Association games.
In a detailed statement before Brooklyn Magistrate Judge Joseph Marutollo, the 40-year-old Mississippi resident admitted that he got inside information on NBA games, which he and others used to make winning bets.
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"I agreed to pay a player to change their game performance to give me an advantage on bets I placed for myself and others," Fairley said.
In the case of the NCAA bribery scheme, he said, "Myself and others won money due to the altered player performances."
Fairley also admitted to placing bets on some players' behalf.
He pleaded guilty to seven federal offenses, including sports bribery, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, and remains free on $200,000 bond. He's set to be sentenced Feb. 27. The case against Hennen is still pending.
In October, the two men were busted alongside 32 other suspects, including Rozier, Jones and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, in a pair of blockbuster indictments alleging game-fixing and a scheme to cheat high-roller card players in rigged poker games. Fairley was not named in the poker indictment.
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In a new, superseding indictment unsealed Thursday, the feds allege Rozier, who was playing for the Charlotte Hornets during the 2022-23 season, negotiated with his longtime pal and co-defendant Deniro Laster, 30, as well as with Fairley, to leave early during a March 23, 2023, game against the New Orleans Penguins in exchange for a $100,000 bribe.
Rozier, who hurt his leg earlier in the season, was not on the injury report for that day, and NBA and team officials didn't know he was planning to leave early, the feds said.
But Laster and Fairley did, and they shared that info with Hennen, leading the members of the conspiracy to place $250,000 in bets that Rozier would underperform, the feds allege.
Even so, Rozier grabbed four rebounds before going out, going over his betting line — so his bribe was reduced to $70,000, the feds allege.
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Though he's not allowed to gamble as a condition of his bond, Fairley got right back to selling betting advice on Instagram soon after his arrest, telling his followers in one video post from Dec. 27, "This is it. This is what we've been waiting on. Everything been added up, and guess what, I done added an Asian to the staff. I done added an Asian to– you know how smart they are. Let's go. Tap in, it's exclusive."
Fairley also offered his insights on a variety of topics on "The Vezino Podcast," which included episodes titled, "Marriage/ Pre-Nups, Credit Scores, & Talking about Situations You Ain't Never Been In" and "You Ain't Rich Enough Rn to be Chasing Women & Be Distracted. Lock in!"
Fairley and Hennen started their Chinese Basketball Association scheme in September 2022 by fixing games with Blakeney, who was then shooting hoops for the Jiangsu Dragons, according to federal prosecutors. Blakeney isn't charged in the Pennsylvania indictment, but he's named throughout and is described as "charged elsewhere."
Blakeney, one of Jiangsu's top scorers, agreed to under-perform in two games in March 2023, ensuring his conspirators made nearly $300,000 when his team didn't make the point spread, the feds allege. That April, after the season ended, Fairley put a package containing almost $200,000 cash in a storage unit in Florida used by Blakeney, the feds said.
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Hennen and Fairley moved on to the NCAA, as part of a team of "fixers" who offered college hoops players $10,000 to $30,000 bribes, the feds allege. That scheme involved more than 39 players who tried to fix more than 29 NCAA Division I men's basketball games, according to prosecutors.
