Malik Beasley, an NBA player under investigation in a federal gambling probe, had “financial issues” and struggled to pay back a $650,000 advance this year, according to a lawsuit filed by his former marketing agency.

The suit, filed in April by New York-based Hazan Sports Management Group, seeks $2.25 million in damages and legal fees from Beasley for breach of contract.

An attorney for Hazan Sports wrote that the firm “elected to take a chance and make a substantial investment of time, effort, and resources in a player with known issues (including and especially financial issues)” when it took Beasley on as a client in November 2023.

Beasley terminated the deal two years later on Feb. 27, according to the suit. Hazan Sports tried to recoup a $650,000 marketing advance “but received little more than drips and drabs of sporadic payments and vague promises to repay the balance over time,” the suit alleges.

On June 11, an attorney for Hazan Sports requested an extension in the suit to allow the parties to work on a settlement. A potential deal was predicated on Beasley’s financial liquidity, “which is directly related to the commencement of the National Basketball Association’s (“NBA”) free agency period,” the attorney wrote.

Beasley, a free agent, was coming off a resurgent season with the Detroit Pistons and was in discussions with the team about a three-year, $42 million deal, according to ESPN insider Shams Charania. The discussions have been put on hold, according to Charania. Beasley has earned nearly $60 million during his nine-year NBA career.

ESPN has reached out to attorneys for Hazan Sports. No attorney is listed for Beasley in the suit. Steve Haney, who is representing Beasley in the federal gambling investigation, told ESPN he is not the attorney of record in the civil suit.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York is leading the gambling investigation, according to Haney. Beasley has not been charged with a crime. The gambling allegations are from the 2023-24 season when Beasley was with the Milwaukee Bucks, sources told ESPN.

“An investigation is not a charge,” Haney told ESPN. “Malik is afforded the same right of the presumption of innocence as anyone else under the U.S. Constitution. As of now he has not been charged with anything.”

Beasley is the third NBA player known to be investigated by the Eastern District of New York in the past 18 months. Former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter pleaded guilty to wire fraud and admitted to conspiring with gamblers and compromising his performance in two games during the 2023-24 season so his associates could profit on bets on his statistics. Three other defendants in the case have pleaded guilty, and two additional men implicated are in plea negotiations with prosecutors, according to court filings.

Miami Heat point guard Terry Rozier remains under investigation related to suspicious betting patterns on his statistics in a March 23, 2023, game when he was with the Charlotte Hornets. He has not been charged, and the NBA said it looked into the matter at the time and did not find that any league rules were broken.