Copyright New York Post
The postal service worker mother of the alleged mastermind of a massive NBA betting scandal expressed sticker stock Thursday when she learned she would have to put up $250,000 bail to keep him out of jail. “Wowww! I understand,” Pittsburgh resident Linda Marie Hennen exclaimed when told in Brooklyn federal court that she’s be on the hook for the hefty sum if her son, Shane “Sugar” Hennen, failed to show up to his next court date on Nov.24. The Las Vegas-based self-proclaimed sports betting guru pleaded not guilty at the hearing to his alleged roles in two sprawling indictments — including one that ensnared members of four New York crime families — that rocked the basketball world when they were unsealed last week. Prosecutors say Hennen, 30, orchestrated a scheme to have NBA players like Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter pull themselves out of games early with bogus injuries to score big on sports bets. A separate indictment charges Hennen with supplying cheating technology, such as card-shuffling machines altered to digitally read the cards in the deck, to a mob-backed rigged poker game crew that lured in high-rolling marks using former NBA players Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones as bait. Hennen’s mother called into Thursday’s court appearance and was put on speaker phone as Magistrate Judge Taryn Merkel explained the terms of the $250,000 bond package prosecutors hashed out with Hennen’s lawyer. She told the court that she had been hired recently as a package handler for UPS, earning around $300 a week. “Yes, ma’am, absolutely,” the mom told the judge when asked whether she was sure she was willing to guarantee the bond on behalf of her embattled son. Hennen’s brother, Colin, plans to join his mother to share responsibility for the bond, Hennen’s lawyer said. Wearing a lime green t-shirt, gold bracelet and sporting a thin chinstrap beard, Hennen claimed after the hearing wrapped that he’s confused at the breadth of the sprawling federal probe that he’s ensnared in. “I don’t know half of the guys on this case,” he told reporters in the courthouse hallway, before adding, “No basketball players…I have no affiliation to none of them.” It was unclear which of his two indictments he was referring to, or what basketball players he was talking about. He walked away when reporters attempted to ask him additional questions, and his lawyer declined to comment. Court papers claim Hennen directed a network of fellow bettors who ended up shelling out $200,000 on bets that Rozier would underperform in a March 2023 NBA game that Rozier had told the crew he’d be leaving early with a phony injury. He also allegedly made bets based on phony injuries faked by Porter, who has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and admitted that he tipped gamblers to games he purposely was going to rig — earning them $1 million in an effort to clear his own gambling debt. Hennen faces the possibility of decades in prison if convicted of wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges. As part of the Porter probe, he was first busted in January at the Las Vegas airport with $10,000 in cash and a one-way ticket to Colombia, court papers reveal. He had been released on $200,000 bail in the Porter case before his re-arrest on the two new headline-grabbing indictments.
