Feds Seek to Jail Rozier Co-Defendant Over Alleged Witness Tampering

The NBA's gambling corruption case, already ugly enough on its own, got messier last week when federal prosecutors accused a key co-defendant of trying to scare witnesses into silence, according to a court filing reviewed by ESPN.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York alleged that Deniro Laster, a childhood friend of Terry Rozier's and a co-defendant in the NBA player's gambling case, has "repeatedly and flagrantly violated the conditions of his release." Prosecutors asked a judge to revoke Laster's bond and hold him until trial.

The alleged witness-tampering playbook, per the filing, included posting rat emojis on Instagram accounts linked to Laster, contacting co-defendants directly and through intermediaries, and his reputation, as prosecutors put it, as someone who typically carried a gun. The message they say he was sending didn't require a decoder ring.

Laster isn't a name anyone outside a courthouse knew before this case. But according to the ESPN report, prosecutors say he played a central operational role. The allegation is that when Rozier tipped off Laster that he planned to leave a March 2023 Charlotte Hornets-New Orleans Pelicans game early, Laster sold that information to fellow bettors so they could place fraudulent prop bets. Prosecutors say the two agreed on a bribe of roughly $70,000 for the information.

Rozier, now 32 and a free agent after the Miami Heat released him in April, has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, David Markus, isn't rolling over on the witness-tampering allegation or the underlying charges. The defense has pointed to a text message from Laster telling an unidentified recipient not to tell "Chum" -- Rozier's nickname -- about a bet, arguing that Laster's own words prove Rozier didn't know what was happening. Markus reportedly called the government's attempt to link Rozier to an alleged group referenced in the filings a "dog whistle." Prosecutors say the text is unrelated to sports gambling and isn't the exoneration the defense claims.

The broader case stems from an October 2025 FBI sweep that netted 34 defendants across two federal indictments. Rozier faces charges of sports bribery, wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy, all of which he denies. Some co-defendants have already folded: former NBA player Damon Jones has pleaded guilty, and Shane Hennen has admitted to participating in a related poker game scheme, according to reporting by iHeartRadio.

What's worth keeping in mind is how the league got here. The NBA cleared Rozier of any rules violation back when it first investigated unusual betting activity on that 2023 game. The federal government came in later and saw something different. That sequence of events -- league investigation, all clear, then federal indictments -- is going to sit uncomfortably in Adam Silver's office for a long time. Silver said he was "deeply disturbed" by the allegations after the October arrests. That's a fair reaction. It's also not a policy.

The league created the conditions for this by lobbying hard for legalized sports betting, collecting revenue-sharing arrangements from sportsbooks, and then discovering that some of the people on its payroll had figured out that insider injury information was worth cash on the open market. The Jontay Porter lifetime ban was supposed to be the cautionary tale. Apparently it wasn't cautionary enough.

Rozier's trial hasn't been scheduled yet. But with a co-defendant now accused of trying to shut witnesses up before they get to the stand, the pre-trial maneuvering alone is going to command a courtroom for a while. The rat emoji is a new low for a case that keeps finding new lows.

Sources cited:
- ESPN (https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/49537259/terry-rozier-deniro-laster-prosecutors-allege-witness-tampering-betting)
- Casino.org (https://www.casino.org/news/terry-rozier-co-defendant-accused-of-witness-tampering-in-gambling-case/)
- iHeartRadio / The Game Nashville (https://www.thegamenashville.com/2026/08/05/feds-witness-tampering-in-rozier-betting-case/)
- CBS News (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/terry-rozier-nba-pleads-not-guilty-gambling-case)
- Fox News (https://www.foxnews.com/sports/terry-rozier-illegal-sports-betting-investigation-released-heat.print)