Lansdale Man's Illegal Sports Betting Ended NBA Player's Career: Feds

LANSDALE, PA — A Lansdale man has pleaded guilty in connection to a sports gambling scheme that brought an end to an NBA player's career.

Mahmud Mollah, 24, and multiple other men worked with Jontay Porter, a former Toronto Raptors forward, on the scheme, according to the U.S. District Court in New York. He was charged with wire fraud and related counts.

The gambling occurred during the 2023-24 season and involved at least several games, authorities said.

Porter, 24, would pull himself early out of games so that he would score less than gamblers expected, authorities said. Mollah and others, however, would gamble on the lower end of expected points, knowing ahead of time that Porter planned on pulling out.

Mollah and others would place massive bets, up to $80,000 dollars, that could have had payouts of over $1 million, officials said.

An investigation by the NBA in the spring resulted in Porter, 24, being banned from the league for life. He is the first person to be banned from the NBA for gambling reasons since 1954.

Mollah will be sentenced on May 2 in federal court. He faces up to 20 years behind bars, though he could also just be fined heavily.