Spook liked to brag.
He brushed shoulders with some of the biggest names in the NBA, he said. He jetted to Sin City routinely to gamble with them. He shot dice with players in hotel rooms.
Thomas Sawyer, a Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer, heard Eric “Spook” Earnest boast about his connections to NBA players and other famous athletes during four months of wiretaps while dismantling a St. Louis drug ring nearly 20 years ago. At the time, he dismissed it as false bravado.
“We all thought he was full of s—,” Sawyer recalled of Earnest’s frequent name-dropping.
With ties to the Black Mafia Family and a spate of prior felony convictions, Earnest, 53, was well-known to law enforcement throughout the early aughts. But his connection to the NBA burst into public view last week after he was named in two federal gambling indictments involving an insider sports betting scheme and rigged, illegal poker games. He is one of only three individuals named in both indictments, and the Justice Department highlighted his close relationship with Hall of Fame player and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, 49, who was charged in one of the indictments and matches the description of an unnamed co-conspirator in another.
Sawyer, now retired, got news of the indictments and thought back to Earnest’s name-dropping on the wiretaps. He declined to name the athletes, which he said included boxers and others outside the NBA, as he did not want to implicate individuals not involved in wrongdoing. “(But) every one of them was a very well-noted athlete,” he said. “High-profile athletes, about as high as you can get.”
Court records, business filings and social media portray Earnest as a well-connected, charming St. Louis resident, a father and husband, someone rooted in the hip-hop and R&B scene — but continually running afoul of law enforcement. Exactly how he got connected to NBA players and other athletes isn’t clear, but his presence in high-stakes dice and card games, and his ties to the music industry, may have provided an entry. The Justice Department stated that he and Billups were longtime friends, participating in an illegal, rigged poker game together a mere two months after Earnest was released from custody in 2019.
At the time of the St. Louis wiretaps, Billups was one of the NBA’s rising stars. He won NBA Finals MVP in 2004 while leading the Detroit Pistons to their first championship since 1990 and made his first All-Star team in 2006. He had built himself into one of the game’s great two-way players. Earnest has been an accused felon since he was 17. He pleaded guilty or was found guilty on five felony charges, including commercial burglary and theft in 1991 and 1992, and was sent to state prison in Arkansas. In 1995, he was charged with robbing a post office. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison.
In 2005, a DEA task force started to investigate a drug trafficking organization with strong ties to the Black Mafia Family (BMF), a nationwide drug trafficking organization. Part of the investigation pointed the agents in the direction of St. Louis, where the drug syndicate appeared to be trafficking voluminous amounts of narcotics.
Court records describe Earnest as a “close associate” of Dionne “Cuffy” Gatling, a prominent figure of BMF, and wiretaps revealed Earnest’s involvement in a multi-state drug-trafficking conspiracy. One confidential informant told detectives that Earnest averaged cocaine sales of 20 kg per week.
The wiretap provided a window into other parts of his life, too. He and his crew gambled a lot. They rigged neighborhood dice games. He frequented clubs and was fun to be around. “If they weren’t dealing dope, they were gambling,” said Sawyer.
In October 2007, Earnest pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana, as well as conspiracy to launder money. He was sentenced to 151 months in prison.
While on bond in the drug distribution case, Earnest tended to his music business, Triple E Promotions. He was granted permission to travel to promote shows in Cleveland and a performance by rapper Plies in Houston.
Earnest was released from federal custody in February 2019, according to the Bureau of Prisons. At the time, Billups was out of the NBA. Two months later, in April, according to the indictment, there was a rigged poker game in Las Vegas where Billups and Earnest were present, with Billups acting as described as a “Face Card,” used to attract high-net-worth individuals.
“Spook and Chauncey hit 2 gutshot on the river against the same guy … both calls were over 30k,” texted one participant in the scheme, according to a detention order submitted by the government. “So I was thinking maybe instead of u playing we let let one of the middle eastern guy play…and whenever he got the winning hand Chauncey and/ spook lose to him…”
That Earnest and Billups connected for the alleged poker scheme only two months after Earnest was released from custody could suggest that their relationship began earlier.
On social media, Billups is seen in photos with Terry Lee Flenory, one of the founders of the Black Mafia Family. A comment from Billups’ account reads, “Always love bro. Great times ahead. Happy for u…” That post came in 2021, the year Billups was hired as Portland’s head coach.
On Instagram, Billups follows Earnest’s wife and daughter. Billups’ wife, Piper, also follows Earnest’s daughter. One of Billups’ daughters and one of Earnest’s daughters, who both participated in dance competitions, follow one another.
The Justice Department alleges that the friendship between the two men also included the alleged trading of insider information. Between December 2022 and March 2024, prosecutors allege that Earnest received and passed along non-public information from “a long-time friend” and NBA coach who is not named in the indictment, but identifying details match those of Billups. Earnest is also alleged to have received such information from former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones. In turn, Earnest would allegedly sell the information to co-defendant Marves Fairley to place bets.
Before the Blazers played the Chicago Bulls on March 24, 2023, a co-conspirator with descriptions matching Billups, told Earnest that the Blazers were going to be tanking. Earnest gave the information to Fairley, so he could bet on the game and share the proceeds.
“As alleged, the defendants turned professional basketball into a criminal betting operation, using private locker room and medical information to enrich themselves and cheat legitimate sportsbooks,” the DOJ said in a press release.
Earnest’s federal defender declined to comment. Billups’ lawyer did not answer a request for comment.
Said Sawyer: “To be close enough to get that kind of information, pretty impressive for old Spook.”
