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Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
A new report reveals that the arrest of former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter may have been just the tip of the iceberg in a larger gambling conspiracy. In the report, a man named Shane Hennen is singled out by authorities as the person who helped orchestrate the illegal betting activity.
This lengthy new report, written by Michael Rosenberg and Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated, Hennen is linked to fixing NBA games with Jontay Porter, but that was only the beginning. Law enforcement now calls Hennen’s illegal activity one of the most pervasive point-shaving scandals in North American sports history.
Acting U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny of the Eastern District of New York stated in a court filing last month that Hennen was involved in “illicit financial transactions and fraudulent sports wagers totaling millions of dollars,” resulting “in potentially millions of dollars’ worth of illicit profits and money-laundering transactions.”
The Justice Department alleges Hennen had five co-conspirators just for the Porter scheme. Only four have been publicly identified. Three—Timothy McCormack, Mahmud Mollah and Long Phi “Bruce” Pham — pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy. A grand jury indicted the fourth, Ammar Awawdeh, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery. The Justice Department has said Hennen will be charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering, but delayed officially charging him while he negotiates a plea.
The U.S. Attorney’s office letter says about Shane Hennen, “the proof of his guilt is overwhelming.” Meanwhile, Hennen’s attorney Todd Leventhal told Sports Illustrated, “The government paints a very vivid picture, and I think that picture will have a hard time holding up at trial.”
Last month, it was reported that NBA player Terry Rozier is the subject of an investigation into suspicious betting patterns including “heavy” bets placed by the same gamblers that were involved with Jontay Porter.
Now, according to the Sports Illustrated report, Shane Hennen placed numerous large bets over several years on college basketball games, many of them rather obscure: $100,000 on Loyola-Chicago, $28,500 on Ball State, $60,000 on Toledo, $70,000 on Iowa State, $85,700 on Tennessee, and $75,000 on Drake.
Earlier this year, several Temple basketball games as well as those involving Eastern Michigan, North Carolina A&T, and Mississippi Valley State were either flagged by gambling watchdogs or are being looked into by federal investigators and the NCAA.
The U.S. Attorney’s office claims Shane Hennen used “a network of proxies and straw bettors located across the country.” One the names that has come up in the investigation is Marves Fairley of Mississippi – a man Hennen has called “my partner.” Fairley was indicted for murdering a man in the Witness Protection Program in 2018. On Sept. 16, 2024, the state of Mississippi recommended he get a 15-year suspended sentence, with zero days actually served. The U.S. Attorney declined to comment on whether Fairley is being looked at as a co-conspirator with Hennen.
So for now, both Hennen and Fairley are still proudly making bets and selling their picks on games to other gamblers online. How long that lasts, and what the results of the federal investigation will be able to prove remains to be seen.
Earlier this month, 10 people pleaded guilty to managing a multi-million-dollar sports-betting operation after charges were brought against them by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Alabama. They are scheduled to sentenced in May 2025. The organization they were involved in, according to authorities, was estimated to have accepted over $2 billion in illegal wagers.