Shane Hennen, the Las Vegas high-stakes gambler known as “Sugar Shane,” has pleaded guilty in Philadelphia to charges arising from game-fixing and insider-betting schemes spanning Chinese, college and NBA basketball. The plea covered bribery in sporting contests, wire-fraud offences and money-laundering conspiracy.
NBC Philadelphia reported that Hennen admitted his role in a scheme that recruited and bribed players in the Chinese Basketball Association and later NCAA Division I men’s basketball. He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges tied to wagers using non-public NBA information.
The point-shaving scheme in Chinese basketball began around September 2022, when Hennen and others recruited and bribed Chinese Basketball Association players to shave points during the 2022-23 season. Hennen placed bets on fixed games and arranged for others to make large wagers, according to the account of the case.
After the Chinese scheme proved profitable, the conspirators applied the approach to NCAA games in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Fixers bribed players to influence results, commonly targeting point spreads at half-time or full-time.
More than 39 players from over 17 Division I men’s teams were involved in fixing or attempting to fix at least 29 games. The fraudulent NCAA wagers exceeded $3 million and produced more than $1.1 million in losses for sportsbooks nationwide. Earlier reporting on the January indictment said alleged bribes generally ranged from $10,000 to $30,000 per game and that players from Tulane, La Salle and DePaul were among those implicated.
Hennen was also one of six defendants charged in an NBA betting and money-laundering case. Prosecutors alleged that the group used confidential information from NBA players and coaches between December 2022 and March 2024, passing it through a bettor network and placing wagers through online and retail sportsbooks while concealing the source of the information.
One alleged episode concerned Terry Rozier, then of the Charlotte Hornets. On March 23, 2023, Rozier allegedly told a friend that he intended to leave a game early because of an injury. Hennen and other conspirators then placed or directed more than $200,000 in wagers on Rozier recording under his statistical totals. Rozier played nine minutes, and investigators said the bets generated tens of thousands of dollars in profit.
A separate alleged NBA-related operation involved former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, who allegedly told co-conspirators before games on Jan. 26 and March 20, 2024 that he would leave early because of injuries. The information was relayed to Hennen, who allegedly arranged under bets through straw bettors. Porter was banned by the NBA in April 2024 for violating league gambling rules.
Hennen had been charged in the Chinese and NCAA case by a January indictment in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. FBI Philadelphia investigated the game-fixing case with help from FBI New York and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York; FBI New York and the New York Police Department investigated the NBA case.
He still faced charges in a separate federal investigation into rigged poker games. Sentencing in the Philadelphia case was set for February 2027, although accounts differed on whether the date was Feb. 25 or Feb. 27. NBC Philadelphia and Yahoo Sports put the maximum exposure in that case at 85 years in prison, while the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported a maximum possible sentence of 125 years.
