Former NBA player Malik Beasley has agreed to plead guilty in his federal sports betting case, according to his attorney, Steve Haney, who spoke to ESPN on Tuesday. Beasley, who played nine seasons in the NBA, is scheduled to change his plea at a Dec. 9 hearing in New York. He initially pleaded not guilty to four federal charges: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bribery in sporting contests, honest services wire fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Haney said his client had been in talks with prosecutors about a potential plea agreement and confirmed Tuesday that a deal had been reached. He declined to specify the terms. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn also confirmed an agreement had been reached but declined to comment on the specifics.
Beasley, 29, is one of six defendants in the case, which alleges that he coordinated with sports bettors to manipulate his statistics in at least four NBA games during the 2023-24 season. Prosecutors claimed that Beasley, then playing for the Milwaukee Bucks, joined the scheme after accumulating "multimillion-dollar gambling losses."
Another defendant, Ernesto Plascencia, will also enter a guilty plea, his attorney confirmed. William Brown pleaded guilty earlier this month, and Robert Gorodetsky is slated to formally enter a plea on Nov. 20. Former NBA player Ed Davis and Paolo Zamorano, Davis' agent, were also charged and have pleaded not guilty. The NBA said it is monitoring the proceeding.
Source: ESPN NBA · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing