Beasley, Davis charged in federal gambling case

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David Purdum

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David Purdum

ESPN Staff Writer

Joined ESPN in 2014

Journalist covering gambling industry since 2008

Jun 29, 2026, 10:34 AM ET

Former NBA players Malik Beasley and Ed Davis, and an NBA agent are among six defendants indicted Monday on charges related to an alleged sports betting scheme, according to a federal indictment released Monday.

Davis and co-defendants Rob Gorodetsky, Ernesto Plascencia and William Brown were arrested Monday, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Beasley and defendant Paolo Zamorano, who was Davis' agent, were not in custody as of Monday morning.

Steve Haney, Beasley's attorney, said that they have coordinated with the U.S. Attorney's Office out of Brooklyn to voluntarily surrender this week.

"An indictment is not proof of guilt or evidence. It is merely a charge of probable cause," Haney said in a statement to ESPN. "The investigation was a year and a half long and we maintain Malik's innocence of all charges."

According to the indictment, Beasley lost millions of dollars gambling during his nine-year NBA career. He agreed to underperform and overperform ahead of at least four games during the 2023-24 season while he was with the Milwaukee Bucks, so that the co-conspirators could wager on his statistics, according to the indictment.

Beasley received bribes from co-conspirators, often used to reduce or pay off debts he owed Davis, prosecutors allege in the indictment. The two were teammates on the Minnesota Timberwolves during the 2020-21 season. Davis was known in the scheme as Beasley's "gatekeeper," prosecutors allege.

"Only way you can beat Vegas is sports betting," Davis texted Beasley a month in December 2023, according to the indictment. "...We can make some good money."

A month later, Beasley informed Davis that he intended to underperform on rebounding in a Jan. 26, 2024 game between the Bucks and Cleveland Cavaliers, according to the indictment. "[T]he defendants and their co-conspirators placed numerous fraudulent wagers totaling tens of thousands of dollars conditioned on defendant Malik Beasley's 'under rebounds' prop bets," the indictment alleges. Bradley finished with three rebounds, under the betting line of 3.5 rebounds at some sportsbooks.

ESPN has reached out to the NBA for comment.

A former NCAA Division I college basketball player and current coach with a Division II men's team is among the unnamed co-conspirators in the indictment.

Monday's indictment does not appear to be directly connected to previous gambling indictments from the Eastern District of New York, involving NBA players Jontay Porter, Terry Rozier and Damon Jones, according to multiple sources.

At least one prominent U.S. sportsbook detected unusually heavy betting interest on Beasley's statistics beginning around January 2024, ESPN previously reported.

Beasley has struggled financially in recent years. A judge ordered him to pay $1 million to his former agency last March, which alleged in a lawsuit that Beasley had failed to pay back a $650,000 marketing advance. He was evicted from his high-rise apartment in Detroit last summer after his landlord sued him for a total of $21,505 in unpaid rent, according to court records.

News of the federal investigation into Beasley broke as he was negotiating a three-year, $42 million deal with the Detroit Pistons last June. Beasley earned nearly $60 million during his NBA career.