One of four men who allegedly conspired with Toronto Raptors guard Dontay Porter in a stat-fixing scheme has pled guilty to a charge of wire fraud conspiracy and will face up to 20 years in prison when sentenced next April.
Long Phi "Bruce" Pham agreed to a plea deal in a federal Eastern District of New York courtroom on Wednesday for his role in the scheme, which saw Porter feign illness and injury in two NBA games, and ultimately resulted in Porter's permanent ban from the NBA.
Porter will also face sentencing this December after pleading guilty to the conspiracy. The now-banned basketball pro became indebted to Pham and the other conspirators after losing huge sports wagers to the group and was coerced into removing himself from the games under false pretenses as a 'special' to make good on his debt.
Pham and the other members of the conspiracy ring used the advanced knowledge to place over a million dollars in wagers at DraftKings and FanDuel sportsbooks in New Jersey. Most of their winning bets were never paid out, however, since the outlandish amounts wagered on Porter's stats were such an outlier they triggered red flags and helped lead to the investigation.
Alleged 'top 1% percent player' has sketchy poker history
Pham will remain free until his 2025 sentencing on the continuance of a $750,000 bond posted when he was indicted in June. He was arrested at New York's JFK International Airport after having purchased a one-way ticket to Australia shortly after his group was tipped by Porter that he and the others might be hit by racketeering charges.
Pham's lawyer publicly declared that he was in the top “one percent of poker players in the world,” and had flown to Australia to play in a major live poker tournament. There was a large tournament series going on at Sydney's Star Casino at the time, but a check of the festival's schedule showed that the last major event there would have closed its registration several hours before Pham's flight arrived in Australia.
Pham does have a minor Hendon Mob profile, but he has been involved in poker in a far more controversial way, being one of several men accused of cheating in a long series of high-stakes home games in the greater Los Angeles area in 2022 and 2023. Several of the cheated players had already achieved some fame by participating on the popular "Hustler Casino Live!" livestreamed. Players including "Wes Side" Wesley Fei, "Nik Airball" Arcot, "Blank Check Ben" Lee, and others went public with their accusations against Ye “Tony Mars” Shen and others allegedly involved in a major poker cheating ring. Pham was among the other players accused of being part of the cheating operation.
