Federal prosecutors have asked the judge overseeing the NBA insider trading case to put one of the defendants into custody because, they say, he tried to intimidate witnesses and obstruct justice. The defendant, Deniro Laster, is accused of collaborating with Terry Rozier as part of an alleged scheme where Rozier removed himself from a March 2023 game to benefit gamblers. Rozier and Laster have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Rozier has not been implicated in the latest filing from prosecutors, but his attorney, David Markus, has accused lawyers for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York of issuing a “dog whistle” with their latest request.
The prosecutors told the federal judge that Laster and Rozier are part of a group called GMB that has a reputation for owning guns, they wrote in a new legal filing. They said that Laster tried to intimidate potential witnesses through Instagram posts and that he allegedly had other communications that violated his bond terms. Laster posted a rat emoji on Instagram, the prosecutors said, as a way to intimidate possible witnesses and prevent them from helping with the government’s investigation.
Laster also reached out to another defendant at the end of last year after they were indicted, according to the filing, and told them they and “their co-defendants would avoid conviction if they stayed silent, i.e., refrained from cooperating with law enforcement.”
Markus, however, said that the government’s filing was an overreach. He said that GMB stands for “Get More Blessings” — a name dating back to Rozier’s high school basketball team and also serves as the motto for Rozier’s nonprofit, which raises money to help underprivileged children.
“The government’s attempt to imply that it was some sort of criminal organization is absurd,” Markus told The Athletic. “Terry has never been charged with any firearms offense or with intimidating a witness, and nothing in this filing alleges that he did either. It is nothing more than a dog whistle and a desperate attempt by the government to taint Terry because it sees its case is falling apart.”
A spokesperson for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment on this story.
In a filing last month, Markus told the judge that a 2023 text message by Laster should prove Rozier’s innocence and asked Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall to dismiss two of the four counts he faces. Rozier is waiting on her ruling on a motion to dismiss the other two charges that his previous lawyer filed in December.
Prosecutors allege that Rozier was part of a scheme to help a group of sports gamblers make money using inside information on the NBA. Rozier was first indicted on two federal charges, but prosecutors filed a superseding indictment in May and added counts of sports bribery and honest services fraud. The indictment said he agreed to take a $100,000 payment while with the Charlotte Hornets to take himself out early from a March 2023 game so the gamblers could win money on his prop bets. Laster is alleged to have sold that information on Rozier to the gamblers, according to the indictment.
Trial is scheduled for Feb. 8.
