Ex-NBA Players, Current Agent Among Six Charged in Bribery Scheme to Fix Bucks Star’s Performance for Illegal Bets
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Federal prosecutors unsealed a sweeping indictment Monday charging two former NBA players, a current player agent, and three other individuals with running a brazen scheme to bribe then-Milwaukee Bucks guard Malik Beasley into manipulating his in-game statistics so co-conspirators could place hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent wagers, authorities announced.
The six defendants—former NBA players Malik Beasley, 29, and Edward Davis, 37; along with William Brown, 39, Robert Gorodetsky, 34, Ernesto Plascencia, 39, and current NBA player agent Paolo Zamorano, 39—face counts of wire fraud conspiracy, bribery in sporting contests, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. Several were arrested Tuesday at locations across the country and will be arraigned later in the Eastern District of New York.
According to the indictment, Beasley, who was then playing for the Milwaukee Bucks, agreed with his former NBA teammate Davis—described in court papers as Beasley’s “gatekeeper” to the other conspirators—to deliberately underperform or overperform on specific betting metrics in advance of multiple games. Davis then fed that non-public inside information to Gorodetsky, Plascencia, Zamorano, and others, who used it to place wagers on player props such as points and rebounds, knowing the outcomes had been predetermined by Beasley. In exchange, the conspirators allegedly paid Beasley bribes, typically by reducing or outright paying off his gambling debts to Davis.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. condemned the plot as a direct assault on the integrity of professional sports. “As alleged, the defendants turned professional basketball into a criminal betting operation, bribing then-NBA player Malik Beasley to fix his performance in multiple games in order to place fraudulent wagers, enrich themselves and cheat legitimate sportsbooks,” Nocella said in a statement. “Bribery and insider betting schemes like this one … erode the integrity of American sports and victimize the sports-watching public.”
FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. added: “These defendants allegedly operated an illegal betting ring in an attempt to unlawfully earn hundreds of thousands of dollars. As alleged, Malik Beasley allowed himself to be bought and altered his gametime performance to line pockets of Ed Davis and his other co-conspirators. The FBI continues to dismantle fraudulent schemes that erode the integrity of any institution, including our nation’s professional sports leagues.”
The indictment details three specific games during the 2023–2024 season that were allegedly influenced:
Jan. 26, 2024, vs. Cleveland Cavaliers: Beasley allegedly told Davis he would underperform in rebounding. Davis passed that tip to Gorodetsky, Plascencia, and Zamorano; Plascencia then shared it with Brown. Many of the resulting wagers on Beasley’s rebounding totals were successful.
Feb. 27, 2024, vs. Charlotte Hornets: Beasley reportedly informed Davis he would underperform in points but overperform in rebounds. The same chain of communication followed, and again, many fraudulent bets cashed in.
March 10, 2024, vs. Los Angeles Clippers: Beasley allegedly tipped Davis that he would overperform in rebounding. That non-public information was again passed to the co-conspirators, enabling a fresh round of winning wagers.
In total, the defendants and their co-conspirators placed fraudulent wagers totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars through multiple betting operators, all conditioned on Beasley’s fixed performance in those games, according to the indictment.
If convicted, each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy counts, and up to five years on the bribery in sporting contests count.
The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Read indictment here: malik_beasley_et_al_indictment.pdf
‘FBI Can’t Do Shit,’ Hacker – NATHAN AUSTAD, a/k/a “Snoopy” Bragged — Now He’s Headed to Prison for 18 Months
NEW YORK – A Minnesota man who helped hack more than 60,000 user accounts on a fantasy sports and betting website, then brazenly mocked federal investigators as powerless, was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in federal prison, prosecutors announced.
Nathan Austad, 21, of Farmington, Minnesota, received the prison term from U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams after pleading guilty on December 12, 2025, to one count of conspiring to commit computer intrusion. He is the third defendant to be sentenced in the sprawling investigation, following Joseph Garrison (18 months) and Kamerin Stokes (30 months).
According to court documents, on or about November 18, 2022, Austad and his co-conspirators launched a “credential stuffing attack” against the unnamed betting platform. Using stolen username and password pairs purchased on the dark web from previous large-scale data breaches, they systematically attempted to log into the site’s user accounts, exploiting victims who had reused the same passwords across multiple services. The attack successfully compromised roughly 60,000 accounts.
In about 1,600 of those accounts, the hackers added their own payment methods and drained the existing funds, stealing approximately $600,000. The remaining compromised accounts were sold on various underground marketplaces known as “Shops.” Austad reportedly controlled and profited from his own such shop, named after the Peanuts character Snoopy—a direct reference to his online alias.
Despite knowing they were under federal investigation, Austad and his co-conspirators flaunted their activities in private messages. On December 2, 2022, Austad messaged, “everyone shouldve been prepared for this before cashing out lol,” to which a co-conspirator replied, “lol fbi can’t do shit.” Months later, on May 19, 2023, Austad again acknowledged the probe, writing, “like we didnt know the risk when we started lol . . . everyone knows their committing fraud.”
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton condemned the defendants’ arrogance, stating: “Nathan Austad and his co-defendants hacked an online betting website to compromise the accounts of over 60,000 users by purchasing their already stolen credentials on the darkweb and utilizing their previous passwords from other websites. The defendants acknowledged the federal investigation into their conduct while they were committing their crimes, even having the hubris to say the FBI could not do anything about it. They were wrong. Austad’s prison sentence today demonstrates the commitment of the DOJ, the FBI, and all our federal partners to protecting our on-line markets.”
Beyond the 18-month prison term, Judge Abrams imposed three years of supervised release and ordered Austad to pay $463,684.48 in forfeiture and $1,327,061 in restitution to the victims. Austad also controlled cryptocurrency accounts that received roughly $465,000 in illegal proceeds.
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