CLEVELAND, Ohio — Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier is paying for his longtime friend’s attorney as the two face federal charges in connection with an NBA betting scandal, prosecutors said.
In a Tuesday filing, federal prosecutors said the former Shaker Heights High School star appears to be simultaneously planning to pin wrongdoing in the scheme on his friend, DeNiro Laster.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Weintraub asked for a hearing to determine whether Laster’s attorney, Matthew Evan Corcoran, should be kicked off the case, claiming Corcoran has a conflict of interest between the person paying him and the client he represents.
“These circumstances pose real ‘inherent dangers’ in that the payment of legal fees by a third party and co-defendant ‘may subject an attorney to undesirable outside influence’ and raises an ethical question ‘as to whether the attorney’s loyalties are with the client or the payor,’” Weintraub wrote.
Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer reached out to Corcoran for comment.
Rozier, 31, and Laster, 30, are among six people charged in connection with a betting scheme in which Rozier is accused of faking an injury and telling Laster about it ahead of time so he and others could bet on Rozier’s poor performance for that game.
Prosecutors said Laster acted as a go-between with bettors and sold the tip about the planned Rozier injury for $100,000. Professional bettors then used a slew of proxies to place more than $259,000 in bets, according to the indictment.
Rozier ultimately removed himself from the March 23, 2023, game, when he played for the Charlotte Hornets, after playing just nine minutes.
Prosecutors have not said how much money the bettors won, but one low-level proxy bettor put down six bets and raked in more than $53,000. Laster drove to Philadelphia, where he picked up tens of thousands of dollars in winnings and took the money to Rozier’s home, where they split it, according to prosecutors.
Rozier and Laster previously pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies. Rozier was allowed to remain out of jail after posting a $3 million bond. He was placed on unpaid leave after the charges were filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York.
Weintraub wrote in the filing that Rozier and Laster have been close friends since childhood, that Laster lived with Rozier for a time and frequently traveled with Rozier to games. From December 2022 through May 2025, Rozier’s company, GMB Chronicles LLC, paid Laster some $165,000, the filing said. Laster played football for Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights high schools.
During interviews with TV stations after Rozier’s indictment, his attorney, Jim Trusty, said that Rozier did nothing illegal and that his only role was making a comment to “a friend,” who prosecutors said is likely Laster, about being banged up at the end of a long NBA season.
“The potential conflict is compounded by the fact that Rozier is a co-defendant who, based on his attorney’s public comments, is blaming Laster for Rozier’s indictment and is likely to assert a defense in court that is contrary to Laster’s interests,” Weintraub wrote.
Trusty said he planned to file a more detailed response in the coming days, but that prosecutors are “barking up the wrong tree.”
“We have been pointing out that even if the government’s allegations were true about Mr. Laster, that would not mean that Terry Rozier broke any laws,” Trusty said.
