Ex-NBA player Malik Beasley negotiating plea deal in federal betting and bribery case

• Malik Beasley drops not guilty plea for a plea agreement with the Department of Justice
• He is the third person in the probe to have agreed to plead guilty
• Beasley is accused of multiple infringments that happened over the course of at least four games

Malik Beasley is looking for a plea agreement with the Department of Justice, the defendant’s lawyers confirmed on Saturday, October 24.

Beasley changes his defense - seeks guilty plea as arrangements are being made

Beasley is currently accused of participating in a bribery and betting scheme, that has undermined the integrity of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and has allowed third-parties to profit from insider information when placing wagers on sporting event outcomes.

The player faces charges of federal counts of bribery in sporting contests, wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. Until Saturday, he has been maintaining his innocence, pleading not guilty.

Beasley is pleading guilty, attorney Steve Haney confirmed for ESPN, one of the medias to originally report the news, with a guilty plea deal still in the works and to be finalized soon. Beasley is a prolific NBA player who competed for nine years and played for six teams.

He is accused of having manipulated his own performance to third parties that had placed bets on specific games. This manipulation occurred in at least four games, including during a game when he played for the Milwaukee Bucks.

More co-defendants in the case have either pleaded or are expected to plead guilty

Beasley allegedly manipulated his scoring and rebounding statistics in games that were not televised. The player is said to have accumulated multi-million-dollar gambling losses, which could be part of why he has been in contact with the people responsible for the bets.

Two other people involved, William Brown and sports gambler Robert Gorodetsky, have already pleaded guilty or, in the case of Gorodetsky, are expected to. Ernesto Plascencia is also expected to plead guilty.

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