This month, a grand jury indicted Shane Hennen for his role in a scheme to rig private card games and NBA games, as part of a nationwide criminal enterprise.
The allegations are news, but not entirely new.
Sixteen years ago, a former college basketball player accused Hennen of cheating at a private card game.
Ryan Lambert had transferred from Western Kentucky to Duquesne, in Hennen’s hometown of Pittsburgh. He started three games and played in seven in the fall of 2005 before being dismissed after a fight with a teammate. Lambert stayed in Pittsburgh after his dismissal, and in the early morning hours of Nov. 20, 2009, he accused Hennen of cheating at cards. The 6' 7", 200-pound Lambert confronted the 6' 2", 165-pound Hennen.
Less than an hour later police found Lambert on Wharton Street in Pittsburgh, outside a nightclub called Diesel, with a stab wound in his neck.
To date, 38 people have been charged or indicted for their roles in the gambling scandals that have shaken the sports world.
Twenty-seven, including Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, are only connected to a multimillion-dollar scheme to rig private poker games.
Seven, including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, are connected to fraudulent NBA bets. (Lawyers for Billups and Rozier have publicly denied the allegations against their clients.)
Four are connected to both.
One man is in the middle of all of it.
Shane Hennen is not the most famous, powerful or intimidating defendant. He is not an NBA player or coach, and he is not one of the 12 defendants who has been linked to the New York Mafia’s five families. He is just a guy with a criminal record who claims to make a living selling gambling picks.
But you cannot tell any part of this story without him.
Authorities have connected Hennen to Jontay Porter’s two rigged performances for the Toronto Raptors in 2024. “Hennen, together with others, conspired to place fraudulent ‘under’ prop bets on [Porter’s] performance in the January 26 and March 20 Games,” FBI special agent Russell Lantier wrote in a January criminal complaint and affidavit, “knowing in advance that [Porter] planned to withdraw from those games for purported health reasons.”
Hennen has been accused of profiting when then-Charlotte Hornets guard Rozier left a March 2023 game with an alleged injury: “Shane Hennen placed multiple bets at a retail sportsbook operated by Betting Company 3 totaling approximately $61,200, all of which were either straight or parlay bets on the defendant Terry Rozier’s unders,” according to last week’s sports-betting indictment. “In addition to placing bets on Rozier’s unders himself, Hennen marshalled a network of associates to place bets on Rozier’s unders.”
And Hennen has been accused of playing a central role in the poker scheme: “Hennen organized Rigged Games, provided cheating technology to other co-conspirators in the Scheme to use in Rigged Games in exchange for a portion of the criminal proceeds from the Rigged Games, and was also a member of the Cheating Teams,” according to the poker rigging indictment.
Three other men have been indicted for both the poker and basketball scandals, but their alleged involvement was not as deep as Hennen’s. Ammar Awawdeh has been accused of convincing Porter to erase gambling debt by rigging his own NBA performances. But as of today, Awawdeh has not been connected to any other basketball bets. The government accused Damon Jones and Eric Earnest of cashing in on inside NBA information, but did not connect them to the rigged performances. Jones and Earnest are also each identified in the poker indictment as “members of the Cheating Teams,” not as primary organizers. Awawdeh’s attorney, Mark Lesko, has declined multiple Sports Illustrated requests for comment. Lawyers for Jones and Earnest did not immediately respond to SI inquiries.
Hennen’s fingerprints might turn up in more places soon. Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania are spearheading the investigation into rigged college games, which is believed to be larger in scale than the NBA scheme. They have not charged anybody yet. But indictments are expected in the near future, and Hennen and his longtime friend Marves Fairley are believed to be at the heart of that investigation, multiple sources familiar with the probe tell SI.
Hennen and Fairley both purport to make their living selling gambling picks. They post pictures on Instagram of themselves with betting slips and bundles of cash, living the high life and advertising for clients. They have continued to do so since being indicted.
RELATED: Inside the Gambling Ring Allegedly Linked to Point Shaving Across Pro and College Basketball
Hennen’s posts are often filled with bravado. YOU BET WITH ME YOU WIN WITH ME LFG. Even after last week’s indictments, he has continued to tout his picking prowess. In response to those indictments his lawyer, Todd Leventhal, told SI that, “Shane maintains his innocence and we intend to fight these charges to the fullest.”
Court filings tell a different story.
On Jan. 12 of this year, federal agents arrested Hennen after he attempted to board a flight from Las Vegas to Colombia, connecting through Panama, with a one-way ticket. In a five-page letter dated Jan. 13, then-Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Carolyn Pokorny urged her counterpart in Nevada to detain Hennen without bail until his trial. Pokorny argued that Hennen was a “serious and substantial flight risk;” that “his motive to flee is obvious;” that “proof of his guilt is overwhelming.” She said Hennen’s “extraordinary financial resources and access to a network of co-conspirators across the country continue to provide him with a means to flee and to do so undetected.”
That day, Hennen was released, according to four court filings.
At a hearing in Brooklyn 18 days later, U.S. Attorney Benjamin Weintraub said of Hennen: “The government does not believe he poses any risk of danger to the society.”
Judge Vera M. Scanlon asked: “Should there be any limitations on his involvement with betting or other similar financial activity?”
Weintraub replied: “We haven’t really discussed that with co-counsel … I think it’s O.K. if we proceed without that condition.”
Hennen’s brother Colin agreed to be liable for a $200,000 bond if Shane did not show up for a court date, but the Hennens did not have to put up any money in the interim.
Shane had to surrender his passport, but the terms of his release allowed him to travel throughout the continental United States. He was not allowed to have contact with his co-conspirators. But he was not subject to any location monitoring or curfew restrictions.
Over the past 10 months, prosecutors and Leventhal jointly filed four requests for excludable delays, tabling any indictment so they could “focus efforts on plea negotiations.” (Four defendants in the Porter case have already reached plea deals, and another, Awawdeh, has been negotiating a plea deal for more than a year.)
Last week, Hennen was charged with two counts of wire fraud conspiracy and two counts of money laundering—and he could potentially face more for the college basketball case.
Now he faces a decision that affects almost every co-defendant: Fight the charges, or try to cut a deal and testify for the government. Hennen finds himself in a place where nobody ever wants to be.
But he has been here before.
Ryan Lambert declined SI’s interview requests. But on the night he was stabbed, he told Pittsburgh police he knew who did it: “Shane Hennen.” At UPMC Mercy Hospital the next morning, police showed Lambert a series of photos of similar-looking men, including Hennen, according to a police report. Lambert pointed to Hennen and said, “He stabbed me.”
Police arrested Hennen, then released him on $25,000 bond.
Twelve days later, Hennen failed four sobriety tests during a traffic stop on State Road 79 in Pennsylvania, according to a police report. Police arrested Hennen for driving under the influence. They took him to St. Clair Hospital for a blood test, then released him.
Hennen would later testify that later that evening he called a Pittsburgh-area drug dealer named Franco Badini and asked for help getting cocaine “pressed” for sale. Hennen and Badini had worked together for more than a year, buying cocaine from suppliers—as much as a kilogram at a time—and splitting it for resale.
Badini sent Hennen to a cousin’s house. Hennen left the house with three ounces of cocaine that he had already arranged to sell. But that night, Drug and Enforcement Administration agents arrested Hennen in the parking lot of the Meadows Casino in Pittsburgh.
Hennen was now facing two federal felony charges for the cocaine incident, one of which carried a 10-year minimum sentence. He also faced three charges for stabbing Lambert, including a felony charge for aggravated assault, for causing or attempting to cause serious bodily injury with “extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
According to Pennsylvania sentencing guidelines at the time, a conviction on that charge, coupled with his prior criminal history, carried a sentence of 3.5 to 5 years. He was also charged in Pennsylvania for driving under the influence on the day of his cocaine arrest. Rather than risk spending the next 13 to 15 years in prison, Hennen decided to help the government’s cases against Badini.
While Hennen’s criminal cases were pending, federal prosecutors requested, and were granted, permission to send Hennen to Detroit with $800, accompanied by federal agents. The target was a cocaine supplier there.
“Defendant Hennen possesses information that could assist law enforcement in locating that source and obtaining evidence against him,” acting U.S. Attorney Robert S. Cessar wrote at the time.
Hennen pleaded guilty to two federal charges for possession and conspiracy with intent to distribute and to aggravated assault in the Lambert case. He set himself up for a more lenient sentence.
But first, he had to testify against Badini.
When Hennen took the stand, U.S. Attorney Craig Haller had him walk through his relationship with Badini, including their history of dealing cocaine together. Haller also tried to preemptively address a topic that was sure to come up under cross-examination.
“You have cheated at gambling in the past, have you not?” Haller asked.
Hennen replied: “That is correct.”
In 2006, Hennen and an associate named Wayne Watkins checked into adjoining Rooms 514 and 516 of a Comfort Inn in Pittsburgh, putting at least one of the rooms under the name of Shane’s brother Colin Hennen. Shane, who was only 20 at the time, told police he used Colin’s name when he booked hotel rooms because Colin was older than 21, according to a police report.
Police said Shane explained the reason for the adjoining rooms. In one room, they would gamble with loaded dice, and in the other room, someone would push a button on “some kind of magnetic device” to get the dice to land on their preferred numbers. Watkins brought the device from his home state of Kentucky. Hennen pleaded guilty to four charges and was sentenced to six months probation.
Badini’s attorney, Lee Rothman, began his cross-examination there. SI is reprinting part of the transcript. Every question and answer that appears here is unedited and in full.
ROTHMAN: “You got it in Kentucky for the purpose of cheating people out of money.”
HENNEN: “That’s correct.”
ROTHMAN: “Not unlike your skills as a pool hustler.”
HENNEN: “That’s correct.”
ROTHMAN: “You make a living out of cheating people out of things.”
HENNEN: “That’s correct.”
Rothman asked Hennen about the mission to Detroit.
ROTHMAN: “That was so that you could try to set someone up, up there.”
HENNEN: “That’s correct.”
Hennen admitted five times under oath that he cheated people out of gambling money: once under direct examination by U.S. Attorney Craig Haller, and four more times to Rothman. But Rothman was not finished.
He asked Hennen about Lambert, who identified Hennen as “the person that stabbed him in the throat,” according to the police report.
ROTHMAN: “All right. Mr. Lambert had accused you of cheating him out of money in a card game, didn’t he?”
HENNEN: “That’s correct.”
ROTHMAN: “All right. And you got into a fight with him?”
HENNEN: “That’s correct.”
ROTHMAN: “And you sliced his throat?”
HENNEN: “That’s not correct.”
ROTHMAN: “Where did you slice him?”
HENNEN: “On his neck.”
Badini was convicted of conspiring to distribute and possession with intent to distribute at least five kilograms of cocaine. It was his second drug-dealing conviction. Badini was sentenced to 20 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release. Thirteen years later, Badini remains incarcerated.
Hennen pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute at least five kilograms of cocaine; possession with intent to distribute a mixture of less than 500 grams containing “a detectable amount of cocaine;” and aggravated assault (serious bodily injury) for stabbing Lambert. He served two years and 12 weeks in prison, followed by four years of supervised release.
Hennen’s decision to cooperate paid off. But he always figured it would.
ROTHMAN: “All right. When you got arrested, did you agree to cooperate quickly?”
HENNEN: “Yes.”
ROTHMAN: “All right. How quickly?”
HENNEN: “That day.”
Hennen was released from prison in 2013. He then violated his supervised release by traveling without permission to Virginia, where he got a speeding ticket, and via plane to San Diego, where a DEA agent discovered “Mr. Hennen did not purchase a return ticket and he was carrying $10,769 in cash.” He picked up a DUI in Missouri in 2017, at which time, according to his probation officer, “Hennen had $14,621 in cash on him at the time of his arrest, which he claimed were the proceeds of his gambling winnings.”
In December 2023, poker pro Matt Berkey said on his Only Friends podcast that he played a high-stakes private game with a person he thought was Colin Hennen, but a friend in Pittsburgh told him it was actually Shane: “I left thinking I was cheated,” Berkey said. “He was crazy action: beats me in a massive pot, very quickly racks up, and has to leave. Never plays again.”
Then, this year, Hennen was indicted for the poker and basketball schemes.
Fourteen years ago, after slicing Ryan Lambert’s neck and then cutting a plea deal, Shane Hennen spoke at his sentencing hearing.
“I just want to say something to the victim real briefly,” he said. “Sorry. This should have never happened. I know it went too far.
“That’s all.”
Lambert was more reflective.
“You know, I learned from it,” he said, “and I hope Shane did, too.”
More NBA on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as How an Anonymous Gambling Cheat Ended Up at the Center of the NBA’s Betting Scandal.
