Inside the Gambling Ring Allegedly Linked to Point Shaving Across Pro and College Basketball
Federal and NCAA authorities are investigating potential links between the gambling ring that ensnared former NBA player Jontay Porter and wagering on at least nine college games across last season and this season.Michael Rosenberg, Pat Forde
Last month, a little-known sports gambler who calls himself the “best that ever did it” attempted to board a flight from Las Vegas to Colombia, connecting through Panama, with a one-way ticket. Shane Hennen soon found himself in an upright and locked position. Federal agents who arrested him say he was carrying multiple cellphones, nearly $10,000 in cash and an alibi he offered “unprompted”: He was traveling to Colombia for dental treatment.
Authorities say Hennen helped orchestrate what appears to be one of the most pervasive point-shaving scandals in North American sports history.
The scandal, which appears to touch both pro and college basketball, has already generated a few headlines, but the sports world has not come to grips with just how widespread this scheme could be. In a court filing last month, the office of acting U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny of the Eastern District of New York vouched for “substantial evidence” that Hennen was involved in “illicit financial transactions and fraudulent sports wagers totaling millions of dollars,” resulting “in potentially millions of dollars’ worth of illicit profits and money-laundering transactions.”
The links from Hennen to game fixing begin with former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter. Porter admitted to taking himself out of games in 2024 so gamblers could win prop bets on his performances. He pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy to commit wire fraud in July 2024 and is awaiting sentencing; the NBA banned him for life. Terry Rozier, a far more prominent NBA player currently with the Miami Heat, is under federal investigation for his performance in a 2023 game while a member of the Charlotte Hornets—his case is tied to Porter’s, three independent sources familiar with the probes tell Sports Illustrated. The NBA said it investigated Rozier and did not find any violations, and the league is cooperating with the Eastern District. Rozier has not been charged with a crime.
The scheme that ensnared Porter was fairly simple: He amassed significant gambling debts, and he repaid them by sabotaging his own performance. Porter’s salary at the time was around $400,000. Sources familiar with elements of the federal and NCAA inquiries tell SI that authorities are investigating potential links between the same gambling ring and wagering on at least nine college games across last season and this season. Investigators have flagged unusual wagering on games involving at least five college teams—and they are prepared for that number to increase.
The Justice Department alleges Hennen had five co-conspirators just for the Porter scheme. Only four have been publicly identified. Three—Timothy McCormack, Mahmud Mollah and Long Phi “Bruce” Pham—pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy. A grand jury indicted the fourth, Ammar Awawdeh, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery. The Justice Department has said Hennen will be charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering, but delayed officially charging him while he negotiates a plea.
After Hennen was arrested at the Vegas airport, the U.S. Attorney’s office wrote that he was trying to flee the country before a “Jan. 15 deadline.” The publicly available letter, which has portions redacted, did not specify a reason for the deadline. According to a filing signed by Hennen and an attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s office, the two sides are negotiating a plea deal. If they reach one, and it includes a promise from Hennen to testify truthfully, we might learn the full scope of the game-fixing ring.
Hennen’s attorney, Todd Leventhal, tells SI, “It’s still early [in the case]. We’re reviewing everything. The government paints a very vivid picture, and I think that picture will have a hard time holding up at trial.”
The U.S. Attorney’s office letter says, “the proof of his guilt is overwhelming,” and includes “witnesses, phone records, financial records and betting records.” The government has not released most of that evidence.
The government says “numerous” Hennen schemes were “fraudulent.”
Through independent reporting, court records and other publicly available information, SI set out to explain how such an audacious—and reckless—scheme could unfold by following Shane Hennen.
Hennen has been in trouble with the law off and on over the last two decades. In 2007, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct; two misdemeanors related to gambling devices; and a felony facsimile-bombs charge, according to Pennsylvania state records. In November ’09, he was charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment in connection with a stabbing in his hometown of Pittsburgh; he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. Twelve days after that incident, Hennen was arrested in the parking lot of the Meadows Casino in Pittsburgh after police suspected him of selling cocaine in the parking lot of a nearby Wendy’s, according to a criminal complaint. He pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and two other charges: possession with intent to distribute under 500 grams of cocaine, and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute over 5 kilograms of cocaine. He served 30 months in prison, followed by four years of supervised release.
In 2016, Hennen requested an early termination to his supervised release, citing, among other things, “renal failure (kidney cancer).” He argued he had followed the terms of his release, a claim his probation officer would later refute: Hennen was not allowed to leave Pennsylvania, but “on August 6, 2014, Mr. Hennen traveled via airplane from Gulfport … to San Diego, California. Mr. Hennen did not purchase a return ticket and he was carrying $10,769 in cash.” In ’17, Hennen left Pennsylvania again; this time, police in Kirkwood, Mo., arrested him for DUI. Kirkwood police said Hennen was carrying $14,621 in cash, which he told officers was “the proceeds of his gambling winnings.” (The DUI charge was later dismissed.)
Earning a living as a professional sports gambler is notoriously difficult, and those who succeed are generally reluctant to share their secrets. But Hennen peddles his. Through his website, SugarShaneWins.com, he sells exclusive picks at a steep rate: $99 for his “exclusive play of the day,” $199 for one full day of picks and $999 for a week of picks.
Hennen coaxes money out of wallets with images of his supposedly glamorous life: seats on private planes and luxury boats; his hand on a Ferrari stick shift; stacks and stacks of money. That would be quite a comeback for a man who, just eight years ago, represented himself in a court proceeding.
Justin Epifanio, sportsbook manager at Rivers Casino in Philadelphia, tells SI that Hennen regularly placed large wagers there. “We definitely know Shane,” Epifanio says. “He was our top bettor for quite a while, a few years. The amounts of money he was betting were quite significant.”
Hennen’s publicly available betting slips, many of which are posted on SugarShaneWins.com, total more than $2 million since 2020—and those are just a portion of what he says he gambled. SI could not independently confirm that each betting slip was authentic. But five of the slips he posted, totaling $269,454 in bets on NFL games and $149,000 in bets on college games, include QR codes that linked to confirmation of the bets by the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Hennen posted a number of these large bets on his Instagram account, including a $300,150 wager on a single Duke-Virginia men’s basketball game in March 2023. That was a high-profile game at the peak of the season, but an executive at one Las Vegas casino, who spoke to SI on condition of anonymity, said his sportsbook would not accept a wager that large on a college basketball game. Some of Hennen’s other bets are on far more obscure contests: $100,000 on Loyola Chicago against Tulsa on Nov. 17, 2022; $28,500 on Ball State against Kent State on Feb. 24, 2021; and $60,000 on Toledo against Buffalo five days earlier.
“Games like that are exactly why sportsbooks have limits,” says the Vegas casino source, who added that Hennen had been a customer at his property and his account was disabled after he was arrested in January. “If someone made those bets, we would immediately label that player as one to watch.”
Hennen also posted on Instagram that he wagered $155,700 on two first-half college basketball spreads on March 4, 2023. He bet $70,000 on Iowa State’s first half against Baylor; Iowa State covered that spread by 15 points. He bet another $85,700 on Tennessee’s first-half spread against Auburn. Tennessee led by seven before an Auburn three-pointer at the end of the half cut the Vols’ lead to four—still a cover for Hennen.
That same weekend, Hennen bet on Longwood to cover its 3.5-point first-half spread against Campbell in the quarterfinal round of the low-level Big South Conference tournament. Longwood covered its first-half spread, leading by six at the break before getting outscored by 19 in the second half. Afterward, Hennen took the unusual (for him) step of obscuring the size of the wager when he posted a screenshot of his betting slip.
In February 2024, Hennen recorded a video of himself in a casino sportsbook, presumably for SugarShaneWins.com customers. (He posted it on Instagram a few days later.) Hennen announced he was focused on college basketball: “Trying to get like a seven- or eight-game win streak going right now. On three at the moment … trying to go very, very hard before this March Madness.”
He then encouraged viewers to “sweat this right here.”
He tilted the camera toward his left hand, which held a $75,000 betting slip for Drake to cover a 9.5-point spread against Murray State.
“Try to get this money,” Hennen said. “Let’s go.”
Drake jumped out to a 22-point first-half lead and won by 23. After the game, Hennen posted the betting slip on Instagram—but this time, he posted the dollar amount and blocked out the game he wagered on.
Inside the Gambling Ring Allegedly Linked to Point Shaving Across Pro and College Basketball
Authorities are investigating potential links between the ring that ensnared Jontay Porter and wagering on at least nine college games the past two seasons.
www.si.com
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