BROOKLYN (AP) — Former NBA player Malik Beasley has been indicted in the government’s sprawling investigation of illicit gambling on basketball games, accused of tailoring his 2024 performance with the Milwaukee Bucks to reward bettors and chip away at his own financial problems, authorities said Monday.

Beasley has been out of the NBA since playing with the Detroit Pistons in 2024-25. Another former NBA player, Ed Davis, was also charged in the indictment unsealed in Brooklyn federal court against six people.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said they “turned professional basketball into a criminal betting operation.”

The schemes, he added, “erode the integrity of American sports and victimize the sports-watching public.”

Nocella said hundreds of thousands of dollars were wagered through popular gambling sites. The indictment says Beasley had financial woes, including millions of dollars in gambling losses, and had relied on Davis, a former teammate, for help.

“Malik maintains his presumption of innocence throughout this two-year investigation,” Beasley’s attorney, Steve Haney, said. “We ask that people reserve judgment until all the facts are known.”

Feds say Beasley tipped others about his play

In return for fixing his performance, Beasley got paid by his money-winning co-conspirators and his debts to Davis were reduced or eliminated, the indictment alleges.

In one example, according to the court filing, Beasley informed Davis that he would try to outperform the 3.5 prop line bet for rebounds in Milwaukee’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers on March 10, 2024.

With a second left, and the Bucks ahead by seven points, any shot by the Clippers would not have affected the outcome. But Beasley challenged the shot and then dashed past four players to grab the rebound as the horn sounded.

Beasley finished with four rebounds that night — an overperformance and a winning prop bet, the indictment states.

“What’s funny is after he got it he had a big sigh of relief,” a co-conspirator said in a text message, according to the indictment.

In other games, Beasley told Davis that he would underperform certain statistics, the government alleges.

The NBA said it would continue to cooperate with authorities.

“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” spokesperson Mike Bass said.

Investigation has kept Beasley on sidelines

Beasley last played in the NBA for the Pistons in 2025, averaging 16 points per game. He is one of five players in NBA history with more than 300 3-pointers in a season, but he did not play in the league last season because of the investigation.

Beasley’s financial problems have been widely reported, including disputes with a Detroit landlord, a Milwaukee barber and a Minnesota dentist. In 2025, when the Pistons were in New York for a playoff game, he was served with a lawsuit from a local sports marketing agency, which subsequently got a $1 million default judgment against Beasley.

Davis’ attorney did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. He was an NBA journeyman who was primarily a backup in a 12-year career that got him roughly $48 million in gross salary. Davis and Beasley were teammates in Minnesota in 2020-21.

Paolo Zamorano, a sports agent who formerly represented Davis, was also charged with placing bets based on Beasley’s information. Defense attorney Ken Breen said Zamorano denies wrongdoing and “looks forward to his day in court.”

Other NBA figures arrested in 2025

Authorities last fall announced a gambling sweep that led to the arrests of more than 30 people, including reputed mobsters and well-known basketball figures such as Chauncey Billups, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and coach of the Portland Trail Blazers at the time.

Billups is accused of conspiring to fix high-stakes card games tied to La Cosa Nostra organized crime families that cheated unsuspecting gamblers out of at least $7 million. He has pleaded not guilty.

In April, former NBA player Damon Jones, 49, became the first person to plead guilty. He was accused of defrauding major sportsbooks, including DraftKings and FanDuel, and filching millions of dollars from unwitting poker players.

Jones was charged with selling or attempting to sell insider information to bettors based on his relationships in the NBA.

Terry Rozier is accused of conspiring with friends to help them win bets on his performance during a 2023 game when he played for the Charlotte Hornets. He, too, has pleaded not guilty. He was on the Miami Heat when he was charged in 2025.

In 2024, former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter pleaded guilty in a separate gambling case. Porter, who had gambling debts, said he took himself out of games early so co-conspirators could win bets on his performance.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Comcast is planning to split itself into two separate publicly traded companies by spinning off NBCUniversal and Sky.

The company said Monday that its board and management team think each company will be better positioned to pursue its own strategic priorities, invest for growth and create long-term shareholder value as independent entities.

Media and entertainment company NBCUniversal includes a theme parks division, Universal film and television studios, NBC and Telemundo networks, Peacock, and Bravo. Its portfolio will now European media business Sky.

Comcast, based in Philadelphia, will continue providing internet services to residential and business customers.

Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh will become the CEO of NBCUniversal. Comcast’s former Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis will become the CEO of Comcast, following completion of the separation. In the interim, he will serve as a strategic adviser.

Comcast Chairman and co-CEO Brian Roberts will continue to be actively involved in the leadership of Comcast and NBCUniversal, working in partnership with the CEOs of both companies.

“Comcast will continue to build on its leadership in connectivity, while NBCUniversal, together with Sky, will have the scale, brands, content and financial resources to compete as a premier global media and entertainment company,” Cavanagh said in a statement.

Once the transaction is complete, Comcast shareholders will own shares in both Comcast and NBCUniversal. The separation is expected to be completed in about a year. It still needs final approval from Comcast’s board and is subject to regulatory approvals.

Comcast expects to keep a stake of up to 19.9% ownership position in NBCUniversal for up to one year after the spinoff is complete.

In premarket trading, Comcast shares surged 24%.

NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein won’t face a fourth trial on a New York rape charge. Prosecutors dropped the #MeToo-era case on Thursday after his accuser said she could not bear to testify again.

The movie mogul still stands convicted of another sexual felony in New York and others in California, and he remains behind bars. But the New York rape charge had remained unresolved after an overturned conviction followed by two hung juries.

Jessica Mann, a hairstylist and actor, spent days on the witness stand at all three trials, telling jurors that Weinstein raped her in a Manhattan hotel in 2013 and being questioned extensively about the complex relationship she had with him before and afterward. The Oscar-winning producer denied the charge and said everything that happened between him and Mann was consensual.

In a letter that prosecutor Nicole Blumberg quoted in court Thursday, Mann said she could “no longer endure going through this,” adding that the 8-year-old case has “put me through more harm than good.”

Blumberg told the court that prosecutors believe Mann and hail her “bravery, strength, courage and inspiration” to other survivors, but given her feelings about proceeding, “dismissal is appropriate.” With that, Judge Curtis Farber formally dismissed the case.

Weinstein left court with a neutral expression, returning to jail to await a September sentencing on a New York sexual assault conviction involving a different woman. Prosecutors are seeking a 20-year prison term.

Once Weinstein finishes whatever punishment he gets in New York, he’s due to serve 16 years in California, where he was convicted of raping a third woman, who’s an Italian actor. He is appealing both convictions.

Weinstein’s lawyers said he was relieved by the dismissal of the case surrounding Mann’s allegation.

“These charges should never have been brought to begin with,” lawyer Jacob Kaplan said outside court. “He is innocent.”

Mann has testified that she had a consensual, on-and-off relationship with Weinstein, who was married at the time.

But she told jurors she repeatedly tried to leave and said no to any sexual activity as he cornered her in a hotel room on March 18, 2013. They had planned to meet in the lobby for breakfast, but he had spontaneously taken a room.

She said he persevered, demanding that she undress and grabbing her arms, until she was afraid to keep protesting.

The latest trial, this spring, took a visible toll on Mann, 40. During five days of testimony, she was questioned for the first time about a diarylike, soul-baring note she wrote two days after the alleged rape, which the note did not mention. At one point during her testimony, Mann said she was struggling to focus, prompting court to wrap up early for the day.

In her letter to the court Thursday, she said she had suffered a concussion shortly before her testimony, had headaches and other symptoms on the stand and ultimately “disassociated.” It was a humiliating addition to an already crushing experience, she wrote.

“I have been fragmented, silenced, defamed and traumatized. I’ve paid the price of my reputation,” Mann wrote. Slamming the court, the media and Weinstein, she said her experience showed that “pursuing justice is better left a pipe dream.”

Weinstein was one of the movie industry’s most powerful figures, a producer of such tastemakers and hits as “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Chocolat.”

Then a series of sexual misconduct allegations against him became public in 2017, fueling the #MeToo campaign for accountability and eventually leading to criminal charges in New York and Los Angeles.

He denied all of them and was acquitted of some, even as he was convicted of others.

During a series of trials, Weinstein was convicted in 2020 of raping Mann. Then an appeals court overturned that verdict for reasons unrelated to her testimony. Jury deliberations broke down at a 2025 retrial, and jurors deadlocked again at this year’s retrial.

The rape charge in this case was a low-level felony punishable by up to four years in prison — less time than Weinstein, 74, already has served.

Weinstein didn’t testify at any of the trials, though he complained during and after the 2025 New York retrial that it was unfair; the judge disagreed.

His lawyers have maintained that all his accusers had completely consensual sexual liaisons with a movie studio boss who could help them go places in show business. Weinstein himself has said he “acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.”

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they choose to be named, as Mann has done.