NEW YORK (AP) – Former NBA and Missouri Tiger player Jontay Porter admitted Wednesday that he schemed to take himself out of games for gamblings sake, pleading guilty to a federal conspiracy crime in the scandal that already got him banned from the league.
“I know what I did was wrong, unlawful, and I am deeply sorry,” the former Toronto Raptors center said as he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Echoing findings in an NBA investigation and allegations in an ongoing prosecution of four other men, Porter acknowledged that he agreed to withdraw early from games so that co-conspirators could win bets on his performance.
He did it, he said, “to get out from under large gambling debts.”
Porter, 24, is free on $250,000 bond while awaiting sentencing set for Dec. 18.
Prosecutors estimated his sentence at a range from just under three and a half years in prison to a little over four years. Ultimately it will be up to a judge, who could impose anything from no time to 20 years behind bars. Porter also is likely to be assessed hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution and fines.
He and his lawyer left court without speaking to reporters. The attorney, Jeff Jensen, later declined by email to comment beyond a statement he made last month, in which he said Porter “was in over his head due to a gambling addiction.”
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