Terry Rozier, cornered: After bets, now owes 8 kilos to the Treasury!

Miami Heat player Terry Rozier finds himself at the center of two serious controversies that could jeopardize his career. As reported by ESPN, the shooting guard is facing a debt of over 8 million dollars with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States, while also facing federal charges for allegedly manipulating his performance in an NBA game to benefit bettors.

According to records from Broward County, Florida, the IRS filed a tax lien for 8,218,211 dollars against Rozier's income in November 2023. The document was issued after several notices of late payment, explained tax attorney Steven N. Klitzner. Currently, there has been no release of this lien, indicating that the debt remains outstanding.

Meanwhile, Rozier was charged last week with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering following a federal investigation that involved 34 individuals in illegal betting schemes. According to the indictment, the player informed a friend, Deniro Laster, that he planned to leave a March 2023 game early. Laster then sold this information to bettors for about 100,000 dollars.

Rozier played just over nine minutes in that game before retiring citing a foot injury. Subsequently, he allegedly paid for Laster's trip to Philadelphia to collect the winnings from the scheme and received him at his home to count the money.

Following the public disclosure of the case, the NBA decided to temporarily sideline Rozier. Although the league had investigated him in 2023 for suspicious betting on his statistics, it then concluded that there was insufficient evidence of wrongdoing. However, Commissioner Adam Silver recently acknowledged that the player's behavior was "anomalous."

The issue of betting

Rozier's lawyer, Jim Trusty, stated that his client "is not a betting man" and "trusts in proving his innocence."

The shooting guard, who signed a four-year, 96.3 million-dollar contract with the Charlotte Hornets in 2021 before being traded to Miami in January 2024, has accumulated over 160 million dollars in earnings during his career. Additionally, he owns a property valued at 5.3 million dollars in Florida, which was also subject to a construction works lien of 271,000 dollars in 2022, most of which he has already paid.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Terry Rozier, acorralado: Tras las apuestas, ¡ahora le debe 8 kilos a Hacienda!