Jontay Porter Co-Conspirator Sentenced To 24 Months In Prison

Timothy McCormack, who last year accepted a federal plea deal after being ensnared in the Jontay Porter and Terry Rozier sports corruption cases, was on Wednesday sentenced to 24 months in prison by Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall in the Eastern District of New York.

Federal prosecutors had sought at least 41 months.

McCormack was the fourth co-defendant so far to accept plea deals stemming from conspiracies dating to 2023 and 2024, where first former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, then allegedly former Miami Heat player Terry Rozier (who has pled not guilty) colluded with gamblers to underperform for the purpose of profiting on prop bets.

On Jan. 16, 2025, McCormack pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud after admitting to using insider information to place multiple winning bets on the players’ underperformance. The court accepted his guilty plea on Feb. 19, 2025.

DOJ case against McCormack

In its pre-trial sentencing memorandum, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sought a 41-to-51-month sentence, arguing that the range “balances the seriousness of the defendant’s crime and the need for both specific and general deterrence of like behavior.”

The memorandum noted that McCormack “individually placed tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of fraudulent wagers” on NBA games in March 2023, January 2024, and March 2024, “among others that the government continues to investigate.” The Porter investigation has revealed a web of interconnections, all involving alleged fixer Shane Hennen, who has been indicted in the Porter, Rozier, Chauncey Billups, and recent NCAA men’s basketball cases.

Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, characterized the sports gambling corruption investigations as “very much ongoing” during a press conference announcing the Rozier indictment — which pertained to sports bribery — and Billups’, which involved alleged Mafia-run rigged poker games.

Porter is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last year to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

McCormack admitted to placing bets on rigged markets in three games as part of his plea agreement:

• March 23, 2023: Using information that Rozier, then with Charlotte, would leave a game early against New Orleans to fail to hit sportsbook targets on certain prop bets, McCormack placed six wagers on “under” bets at a retail and online sportsbook operated by “Betting Company 2” totaling approximately $23,726. Rozier played just nine minutes, cashing McCormack’s bets successfully, resulting in roughly a $53,887 payout.
• Jan. 26, 2024: After co-conspirator Ammar Awawdeh convinced Porter to manipulate his performance against the Los Angeles Clippers for the purpose of rigging prop bets, McCormack, a longtime friend of Awawdeh, used the information to place a $7,000 four-leg “under” parlay bet on Porter’s points, rebounds, assists, and three-pointers made. All the bets hit for a profit of $33,250.
• March 20, 2024: Repeating the scheme of Jan. 26, McCormack placed an $8,000 “under” bet on Porter’s rebounds through “Betting Company 1,” which generated a profit of $36,000. McCormack and his co-defendants learned of a government investigation into their betting activities after the game and began destroying evidence. He agreed in his plea deal that he’d obstructed justice by deleting incriminating material from his phone, but was not charged with the offense.

McCormack (black hat in the below photo from the DOJ indictment), Awawdeh (red hoodie), and indicted co-conspirators Mahmud Mollah (foreground) and Long Phi “Bruce” Pham (background), were charged on June 4, 2024, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Mollah and Pham have pleaded guilty to those charges.

Defense cited addiction, debt

In a pre-sentencing supplemental document of support, McCormack lawyer Jeffrey Chartier implored Hall to consider his client’s professed gambling addiction, high level of debt, and lack of a criminal record when formulating a sentence.

The defense also noted that the DOJ case conceded that McCormack was “not the primary architect or leader of the fraudulent scheme,” and that never worked “directly with Porter to plan and orchestrate his rigged performances.”

Clase defense: it was fowl play, not foul play

In a separate betting scandal, last week attorneys for former Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase filed paperwork during a routine status conference in the Eastern District of New York claiming that the pitcher, accused of federal conspiracy, money laundering, and sports bribery, was communicating to persons in the Dominican Republic about his legal cockfighting operation there, not about manipulating pitches to benefit gamblers, including himself.

Clase and former teammate Luis Ortiz were placed on administrative leave this summer by MLB — with the support of the players’ union — as the league and the DOJ conducted an investigation. While both pitchers have been charged with sports bribery, MLB has not released findings. The Athletic, however, reported that Clase had been reprimanded by the league for impermissible use of a cellphone during games. The DOJ indictment claimed that Clase was able to communicate his intentions with bettors to bounce certain pitches and cash in-game microbets through text communication.

Gamblers allegedly made at least $450,000 in the scheme.

In late December, a federal magistrate denied Clase’s request to return to the Dominican Republic to recoup his passport and marry his common law wife.

Clase and Ortiz are scheduled to stand trial on May 4.