Influencers busted in NBA betting probe face new charges they rigged NCAA games
Two Instagram influencers busted last year in a sweeping NBA betting case in Brooklyn face new charges in Pennsylvania, accused of taking part in a “points shaving” scheme with a cadre of NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association players.
Shane “Sugar” Hennen and Marves “Vezino Locks” Fairley, who were charged in Brooklyn Federal Court in October, face charges in the District of Eastern of Pennsylvania alongside 17 former and current college players in a new indictment unsealed Wednesday.
The two betting influencers started their scheme in September 2022 by fixing Chinese basketball games, recruiting former Chicago Bulls player Antonio Blakeny into their plans, federal prosecutors allege.
Blakeny, who was shooting hoops for the Jiangsu Dragons, is not charged in the indictment, but he’s named throughout and is described as “charged elsewhere.”
He was considered one of Jiangsu’s top scorers, averaging 32 points per game, but he agreed to under-perform in two games in March 2023, ensuring that his conspirators made nearly $300,000 when his team didn’t make the point spread, the feds allege.
That April, after the season ended, Fairley put a package with almost $200,000 cash in a storage unit in Florida used by Blakeny, the feds allege.
Hennen and Fairley moved on to the NCAA after that, as part of a team of “fixers” who offered college hoops players $10,000 to $30,000 bribes to go along, the feds allege. They’d typically target underdogs, making sure that they wouldn’t make the spread.
The indictment names players at 17 NCCA teams wrapped up in the scheme, including Fordham University and SUNY Buffalo. More than 39 players tried to fix more than 29 NCAA Division I men’s basketball games, the indictment alleges.
One of those players, Shawn Fulcher, who played for Buffalo, was arrested in New York City and will make an initial appearance in Brooklyn Federal Court Thursday.
Hennen and Fairley, both of whom sold sports betting picks on their Instagram accounts, were charged in Brooklyn Federal Court in October with conspiring with former Cleveland Cavaliers player and coach Damon Jones and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier to leak insider information to bettors.
Hennen is also named in a second October indictment, accusing him of taking part in a mob-linked poker game scheme that used Jones and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups as lures to reel deep-pocketed gamblers into rigged high-stakes card games.
The co-conspirators used equipment like an altered automatic card shuffler, an X-ray table, and a poker chip tray with hidden cameras to make sure their marks lost big, the feds allege.
And in January 2025, Hennen was busted as he tried to leave the country for Colombia, court filings show, charged in yet another sports betting indictment involving disgraced NBA player Jontay Porter, who pleaded guilty in July to federal charges he rigged basketball games to claw his way out of gambling debt.
Hennen and Fairley face federal sports bribery, wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy charges in Pennsylvania. Their lawyers did not immediately return calls seeking comment.