jimmy battista tim donaghy

Im one of the idiots who bought Donaghys book. "They were intelligent guys who just couldn't have full-time day jobs," says a former gambler who knew them. THERE ARE MANY misconceptions about the Tim Donaghy scandal. Same with the season after that and the season after that. There is a footnote buried deep in Gaming the Game that refers to someone taking home in excess of $200 million. Don't be fishing, because you ain't getting anything out of me." That never really flew with us." Now he feared the scheme had become too obvious. ", But Scala, the FBI agent who pursued the case, has doubts. They produce whatever theyre going to produce, independent of the evidence. Everyone at the Curaao office, therefore, had access to Concannon's gambling account. And so, in the end, on the question of whether Donaghy fixed, Pedowitz upheld the findings of the U.S. Attorney's Office -- which never charged him with such crimes. Dallas making both free throws, increasing its lead to eight. He started a gambling group called "The Animals." Place fifty thousand dollar bets and get a massive returnif you won. "There wasn't no need to," Battista has told friends. "All I'm seeing," he said he told Donaghy, "is a movie. About a month after the meeting with Stern, however, the New York Post blared news of the FBI investigation across its front page. Watching would give him agita, he's said, at which point he'd have to turn off the TV: "I remember being like, 'Oh s---, he's getting out of hand.' By this point, the latter was an NBA official, whereas the former had established himself as a professional gambler under several nicknames, including Bah-Bah (or Baba) and The Sheep. It was actually allegedly his extremely strict, god-fearing family that drove him to rebel a little in his younger days, only for him to end up getting mixed with the wrong crowd, as per the production. If the score in a game widened too far beyond the betting line, Donaghy told Martino, Donaghy would be powerless to rein it back in. "Indeed," Stern assured the assembled media, "as a matter of his on-court performance, he's in the top tier of accuracy.". The Celtics won 101-81. The Celtics, favored by 2.5 points, went on to win in a blowout. What Battista, Ruggieri and the rest did was follow the Concannon-Donaghy bets with bets of their own -- $30,000, $50,000, $100,000 a game, according to a person familiar with the betting. "He played golf and gambled.". No line-movement data would be required. "When did he tell you this?" Why? "But they all had a piece of the pizza." Battista had said to the ref. Wife of Tim Donaghy at the time of the scandal. Whenever Scala's special agents interviewed NBA executives for the case, they heard a refrain: "They told us, 'You can't fix a game in the NBA. Not long ago, he brought them out, looked at them and told me about them over the phone. At the time, she told herself the money was from golf-course betting. (Pedowitz, who has retired from his firm, did not respond to requests for comment. That way, Battista could begin to prepare the markets, to manipulate the prices in their favor. Im not nave, Griffin said. Litvin's tone was urgent. This was a few years after Donaghy's release from prison. The guy's career was ruined and his life in shambles. Word about Donaghy had permeated the market, followers following followers. In four games, he called the game neutrally, 50-50. Based on information from Tommy Martino, among others, there were reasons to suspect Donaghy had money on the vast majority of his games during the fateful 2006-07 season, from the very beginning until as late as April 11 -- 65 games in all. He documented a 78% Donaghy win rate and paying him $201,000 for his tips, just a cog in Battistas tentacles, which reached Asia, Europe and Vegas. A former gambler that was unquestionably tied to the biggest betting scandal in NBA history, is of the opinion that disgraced referee Tim Donaghy did not act alone and had help from other game officials. "He was a single man, married with four kids," says Kim Donaghy, his ex-wife. Sarah Spain on Chiefs running backs coach Deland McCullough's search for his biological parents, When the FBI began interviewing Donaghy's referee colleagues, the agents, according to Scala, eventually spoke to perhaps 10 of them. Hes publishing it independently. But while Donaghy would admit to betting on his own games in his plea agreement, he would not admit to fixing games. Frequent excursions were made to the Borgata, a casino in Atlantic City. Donaghy faced 25 years in prison and $500,000 in fines. Suburban Philadelphia insurance salesman and friend of Donaghy who, in spring 2003, partnered with Donaghy to bet on NBA games that the referee was working. In the end, Rush felt there was no need to relay his observations to the Pedowitz people. Whatever his issue was, Battista said he couldn't talk about it over the phone. It was only later, in 2007, after Donaghy had been exposed, that Donaghy's letter-of-the-law foul-calling acquired a darker hue. Ill never understand that., Battista, who called Donaghy a pathological liar with bottomless greed, told Griffin, I knew that Timmys demand for money far exceeded his ability to get it. Normally this meant making a few "head fake" bets. '", Back at the table, Martino and Donaghy told Battista that they needed to drive to a nearby gas station. Per an account in New York magazine in 2015, the NBA somehow persuaded Random House to kill the book. The next night, the trio convened at Martinos house to set terms. He had to use the bathroom, he said, and motioned for Martino to please come along. Mendy Rudolph, Yogi Strom, Jake O'Donnell, Billy Oakes, Ed. Because he was a sometime member of the same golfing circle back home, Ruggieri knew that Concannon and NBA ref Tim Donaghy were friends. Tim Donaghy, Tommy Martino, and Jimmy Battista had attended the same Catholic High School near Philadelphia. An intervention Battista two days later wearing a bathrobe in rehab. The methods of fixing are rather straightforward. The accounts of their actual meeting vary, yet the one thing Jimmy did not shy away from conceding was that while Tim made $2,000 per successful bet initially, he made at least $2 million. . Battista referred to Donaghy, 43, as "Elvis" because the ref was "The King" for how often his picks won. Dont forget that I got involved with this not realizing Donaghys story is [b.s. Phil Scala And so it began From Philadelphia, Donaghy hopping to a Nets home game, then 1,700 miles west to Denver, then over to Seattle, then transcontinental to Atlanta, then southwest to Houston, then back east to DC -- Donaghy zigzagging across the country, in and out of NBA arenas, making his picks to Martino over those cheap bodega burner phones, but not always, because sometimes they'd forget and use their own regular phones, because who cared? Ed T. Rush Martino said Donaghy cheated on tests, too, at Villanova. His mind still foggy with sleep, Nunn could hear the voice of his boss, Joel Litvin, then NBA president, asking questions about Tim Donaghy. In Martino's words, "Blowouts, he can't control." He was [expletive] shrewd and believed everyone owed him the world.. According to Martino, if Donaghy mentioned out-of-state Johnny's name, the pick was for the visiting team. We began by obtaining the trading histories for those games and through those determined which team was the more heavily bet upon. As economist Wladimir Andreff of the University of Paris has written: "All economic analyses conclude that the more money there is inflowing to sport, the greater the sport corruption.". 2 documentary Operation Flagrant Foul, on the 2007 gambling scandal centered on former NBA referee Tim Donaghy, is how it's not just about Donaghy. Tim sits down with Jimmy Battista and Tommy Martino hoping to find out new information about the relationship between referees Tim Donaghy and Scott Foster. But he has kept the investigative notes he took on his FBI cases, including the Donaghy case. As Scala told me, "If you can envision a spiderweb -- it might not be directly, but one or two or three spheres out, you find a name. A few years ago, he bought its rights and original digital files. Battista wired and staying up all night and obsessively, blank-mindedly playing online blackjack and poker and even putting bets down on sports for which he had no special insight or inside information, and losing, losing, losing And then Donaghy whistling fouls on the visiting Heat 12 times in Madison Square Garden compared to four against the Knicks; the Knicks covering Martino flying to Toronto to pay Donaghy and to party, ordering prostitutes from a website Donaghy on March 14 in Indianapolis calling four straight fouls in the fourth against the underdog Pacers when they were losing by six to the visiting Wizards. ", The gambler added, "He also told me they were betting millions and he was an idiot not to ask for more.". He was thus sentenced to 15 months in a federal facility. And what more did you want? Since moving to Sarasota in 2005, Donaghy had often volunteered for the local youth sports leagues that Kulle ran out of a community center. "We all had expectations that Tim was going to be really, really good. He works seven days every week. Griffins three-year descent into offshore betting was triggered by his curiosity about the mafias involvement with sports wagering, stemming from an FBI wiretap of the Gambino crime family. Making bets at the highest levels of sports gambling is akin to the trading of any financial instrument. "Based on our review, and with the information we have available, we are unable to contradict the government's conclusion. ", "These analyses," the NBA told ESPN, "did not support your finding that an unbiased official would not have made the calls that Donaghy did.". The notes taken by the agents during these interviews have a mantra-like similarity: "recalled feeling 'shocked' when he learned about Donaghy did not discuss this matter with other referees" "described his initial reaction as 'surprised' and 'shocked,' and stated that he did not discuss this matter with any other referees" "described Donaghy as a very accurate referee with few missed calls" "did not hear other refs discuss TD thought he was a good ref. The . The Pedowitz Report made no such conclusion. Getty Images LAS VEGAS By January 2007, Jimmy Battista's NBA bets had attracted the attention of the world's heavyweight gamblers, who had connected referee Tim Donaghy to that action. That was obvious. He thought he was having a heart attack. And he could have been.". Gambler, bookmaker and the boss of the Animals betting office when it first deduced that Concannon and Donaghy were betting on Donaghy's game together; now the owner of Planet Fitness franchises. Joe Vito cannot speak to that today; he was busted in 2012 at age 63 for illegal bookmaking in an unrelated federal case. Thats when Battista started calling Donaghy Elvis, The King of prognosticating NBA games including his own, Battista told Griffin. (When I contacted Weiss, who now works as a producer for CBS News' 48 Hours, he said he didn't recall this conversation.) "The only concern I had," he wrote, "was saving my own selfish sorry ass." ", Mark Fainaru-Wada on how broadcasting icon Bob Costas was yanked from the Super Bowl. "But you know what? The final game, Martino remembers, was a loss. Normally this guy was a $100 or $200 or maybe $500 bettor. After the scandal, Rush was among those NBA personnel tasked by Pedowitz with reviewing a set of Donaghy games for evidence of game-fixing. Or even put him in any kind of limelight at all. Tim Donaghy was unwittingly placing himself in harms way, Griffin wrote. An interesting part of the Untold: Vol. Battista, after discovering this, had been following those bets for the better part of the past four years. The Sun-Times Patrick Finley answers the biggest questions facing the Bears after the draft: On this International Workers Day, were committed to fighting for a better future for all workers in our city and state, two labor leaders write. [3] Once Tim, Jimmy, and Tommys betting scheme came to light in 2007, the professional gambler was the only one who refused to speak or cooperate with the FBI in any way, shape, or form. I didn't find it.". They're a species of broker that provides services to sports bettors, laying down wagers on their clients' behalf with bookmakers of various types around the world, legal and not. It was like: Why would you do that?". It was 0.232. In this, Pedowitz followed the lead of federal investigators, who had analyzed video of Donaghy's games -- recruiting Nunn himself to review eight of them -- based on Donaghy's admission to the Feds that he'd wagered on just 16 of his own games in the final season of his career. AND THEN THERE was a former friend of Donaghy's named Aron Kulle, who recalled the time Donaghy came to his office in Sarasota in a state of high anxiety. It touts interviews with Donaghy, Battista and Martino not Griffin. If the spread widens during the trading session, then you know that demand among gamblers for betting on the favorite has intensified. There had to be a pattern. Just before entering rehab, according to Martino and law enforcement documents, Battista had handed over the reins of the operation to Rhino Ruggieri. And so their syndicate came to be known by some as the Animals. Holy s---! A decade later, in the break room of the hair salon he worked in, Martino told me how it had gone: Martino had already known that their mutual buddy Tim Donaghy had been betting on his own NBA games with Concannon, and winning those bets. In other words, Donaghy's track record of making calls that favored his bet was 23-3-4. Battista arrived with a thick stack of $100 bills bound in a rubber band -- $2,000 for the agreed-upon fee and $3,000 as a sweetener. He said his old squad had received the initial ref-in-the-pocket tip in October 2006 -- almost two months before Battista had made his marriage with Donaghy. Because this edge, this treasure, was in danger of evaporating, Battista had decided that he needed to assume direct control over the referee. Probably Donaghy's closest friend in this crowd was a man named Jack Concannon. They were among his biggest brokerage clients and most trusted outs. When I asked, I expected Rush to answer much the same as Nunn had to me: Nothing out of the ordinary. He was a man who was, as they say, connected; a man from whose open hotel room window once dangled a person in debt to a Bonanno crime family member; a man whose clients included Hollywood celebrities; and a man who, back in June of 2006, had sat with Battista in a VIP box at Citizens Bank Park for an interleague Phillies-Yankees game. Perhaps this is why the men who formed Battista's loose, disorderly investor group, the men who were "on the ticket," have, for all these years, remained in the shadows. James "Jimmy" Ba . He knows what he did was wrong, takes full responsibility for every action, and seems to have genuine regret, which indicates hes not actively into gambling anymore, but we can not be 100% certain. Just one game of potential funny business out of 17 wasn't nearly enough to accuse the referee of anything. The night after the Boston victory, according to all parties, the conspirators met once more, at Martino's house in the Philly suburb of Boothwyn. Tim Donaghy's downfall began in 2007 when former classmate Jimmy Battista asked Donaghy if he wanted to earn some extra money while he was still an official in the NBA. A "free roll," as they call it. One morning in early July 2007, Ronnie Nunn was asleep in a hotel room in Las Vegas when his cellphone buzzed him awake. And normally this guy lost. Oakes was Tim Donaghy's uncle. And indeed, the chart for the Boston-Philly game on Dec. 13, 2006, shows the price for Boston spiking and then shrinking back. But we also found that in 10 games during that 40-game span, one team was defeating the other team to such a degree that the spread was rarely in doubt. In October 2002, Donaghy and Concannon decided to pool their money and wager on Ruggieri's picks. "Our plans were blown up by the fact that somebody leaked this," Scala lamented to me. They knew all about what he'd done, they told him; he was looking at 20 years. Donaghy officiated in 40 games between the marriage on Dec. 12, 2006, and March 21, 2007, which according to one source is likely the last game before Ruggieri took control of the scheme. Battista had since decided to set up shop on his own as a bet broker. In the NBA markets, betting experts say, any move of 1.5 points or more is considered unusually severe -- the result of millions of dollars pouring in. Donaghy rose from the table. A high roller named Mike Rinnier, who'd made his fortune in Delaware County supermarkets, decided to bankroll a small sports-betting syndicate in the 1980s. Battista knew Donaghy in high school, and he played football with Donaghy's brother, Jimmy. The referee's life has its contradictions. Among them: Who made the real money? Seth Wickersham on the Cleveland Browns' front office -- and where hope and history collide. He was what's known as a mover. They are a form of broker that helps sports bettors by placing wagers on their client's behalf. Although Jimmy first came across Tim while they were both attending Cardinal OHara High School in Springfield, Pennsylvania, it wasnt until years later that they even became acquaintances. Had Nunn heard anything about Donaghy's resignation? Next, we pulled game videos for all 40 games and employed a researcher with an extensive background in officiating to watch them closely, logging all of Donaghy's and his fellow referees' foul calls. People know I have documents and files, and they constantly ask me questions whose answers they dont like. Whether Donaghy was using his whistle to fix games was beside the point. One more incident, and Stern would sack Donaghy. In April 2007, a few days after Battista checked out of rehab for drug abuse, FBI special agents Paul Harris and Gerard Conrad knocked for the first time on Battista's door. Blessed with the right connections, and after four years officiating in the CBA, the NBA's minor league, he was called up to the majors in 1994. Had he heard about Donaghy's gambling "issues" -- about what he had done? Nobody wanted to golf with him, Minutella said. (Concannon declined comment for this story.) A close observer of basketball, the gambler had become acutely curious after suffering losses on Donaghy-reffed games during that season. Vercher asked him why. Nothing to see here. He'd been raptly listening to the referee's story -- the gambling, the cash, the secrecy, the corruption, the endless search by human beings to gain an edge, the gross opportunism that seemed almost contagious, the almost shockingly easy fixing of a major American sport -- but now there was one big thing on Kulle's mind, and it wasn't the moral of the story. Lawyer, Battista replied. The heart of labor is beating strong in Chicago and Illinois, Why were launching The Democracy Solutions Project. But she would keep finding such rolls in his pockets as the years went on. Jimmy Battista, also known by the monikers "The Sheep" and "Bah-Bah," was a 41-year-old man who struggled with stress, obesity, and an OxyContin addiction. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in the gambling ring. Battista would cut a deal, pleading guilty in April 2008 only to the charge of transmission of gambling information. Moreover, it was indicated he made $20 to $30 million in total for the mob families. There's also Scala, who told me he heard from his informants that underground gamblers "could have been making over a hundred million dollars" on Donaghy's games. Simply put, to show that Donaghy fixed games would suggest that it's easier for gamblers to manipulate games than any sports league would want to admit. The Timmy Elvis Donaghy thing was only a small part of everything I had going on, and I didnt want anyone to find out. They'd gone to the same parochial high school in the working-class Catholic neighborhoods of Delaware County, just outside Philadelphia -- Delco, as it's sometimes called -- where the sports bars are abundant, where a certain easy familiarity with all forms of gambling prevails, where guys have bookies like they've got dentists. . Can I maybe even invest in this thing? I had a good personality to get information out of people on a one-to-one basis [no matter the league], the then-member of The Animals syndicate said, explaining the reason behind his success. On May 14 of last year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a 1992 federal law that had forbidden states from legalizing sports gambling within their own borders. The main problem now was keeping a lid on the thing. [3] During his career in the NBA, Donaghy officiated in 772 regular season games and 20 playoff games. Ronnie Nunn That's what they were looking for. ", But Donaghy didn't settle in. But Battista refused to squeal on Donaghy. None of them says anymore that Donaghy "was a good ref. We also passed along our data to Keith Crank, who served for 15 years as the program director in statistics and probability at the National Science Foundation. Or "influence" or "manipulate" or in any way discussed the mechanics of fixing. She struggled to recall exactly when, but she told me she probably started finding the cash in 2004, during the season. ], Griffin, 52, said. It's possible, in effect, to buy and sell bets, to go long or go short, to hedge. David Anders, an attorney who helped Pedowitz run the investigation, declined to comment.) ", Proponents of legalization have long argued that regulation leads to transparency, which helps root out game-fixing schemes. Now sitting bolt upright, Nunn answered "no" to all the questions. But the crucial betting information -- which sides of which games the ref favored -- had been seeping into the black-market gambling business. In the early 2000s, the sports-betting world was undergoing its own equivalent of a dot-com boom. They would use, per Martino's statement to the FBI, a code. Battista and Donaghy were never to speak directly. But examine that imbalance against the financial imbalances discovered in the trading histories-which side received the heavier betting -- and the important comparison isn't between Donaghy's foul calls and the team that won the game. An old classmate, Jimmy Battista, had extorted him into making NBA betting picks for him by saying, "You don't want anyone 'from New York' coming to your house" (via ESPN). Three. Donaghy, Griffin said, distracts and diverts. FBI special agent and head of the investigative unit focused on the Gambino crime family at the time of the investigation. After learning about the suspicious circumstances surrounding the leak of the original Donaghy story and Jimmy Battista's plea deal, the crew investigates the most .

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