Gilbert Arenas arrested for conspiring with Israeli mob to run high stakes underground poker games (which also supplied hookers)

[Dan Druff]

Here's a fun fact of which you may not be aware.

Despite the presence of big card rooms such as Commerce, The Bike, Hollywood Park, Hustler, and others, Los Angeles also has a thriving underground poker scene. These got a bit of attention in late 2023 when Nik Airball accused various other poker players of cheating him out of $1m in one of those games.

These underground games charge a (high) rake, tend to be high stakes, and are invite-only. They are fairly good at finding fish to make the games a lot softer than what you'd find at a licensed cardroom, and sometimes top pros are shut out.

A number of these games also hire a number of hookers to double as servers and massage girls, but will also take dudes into the other room and fuck or blow them for the right price.

I have been invited to some of these games over time, some as recently as the 2020s. I've always turned them down, aside from one mid-stakes version of it I attended circa 2007.

Anyway, apparently former NBA player Gilbert Arenas decided that he wanted to spend his retirement running one of these games, and he's just been arrested for it. Arenas got involved with various Israeli mobsters, and they ran the games out of a mansion in Encino. For those unfamiliar, Encino is a mostly-upscale suburb of Los Angeles, in the San Fernando Valley, and has been referred to in movies such as "The Karate Kid" and of course "Encino Man".

Here's an article from KABC Los Angeles about it: https://abc7.com/post/former-nba-sta...home/17364852/


The house where the game took place was rented by Arenas, and apparently everyone involved in running the game was working under him, including his Israeli mob partners.


My favorite paragraph is this:

Young women allegedly collected tips to serve drinks, provide massages, and offer companionship to the poker players, prosecutors allege, and were charged a percentage of their earnings from working the games. Chefs, valets and armed security guards also were hired to staff the games, according to the indictment.

LOL "offer companionship". That doesn't mean the girls would just sit next to do the dudes during the game and talk about politics.

The pimp-like arrangement with the girls is standard in these games. The hookers charge the dudes whatever they can manage, and then have to surrender a percentage of that money to the directors of the game before they leave. Hookers tend to like these jobs because the money is good and the environment is safe. Definitely beats meeting randoms from Craigslist who might beat or murder them.

No idea why Arenas got involved in all of this. Did he not make enough money from his NBA career? Did he blow most of it?

The games were said to take place from 2021-2022. It's not clear why it took 3 years to charge Arenas, or why the games ended.

[The Boz]

Good Untold episode on Netflix about him and his gun issues with a teammate.

[simpdog]

How did anyone walk away with money from that game?

The rake is too damn high when you add in hookers.

[Dan Druff]

Here's the DOJ release:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr...tment-alleging

LOS ANGELES – Former NBA star Gilbert Arenas and five other defendants – including a suspected high-level member of an Israeli transnational organized crime group – were arrested today on a federal indictment alleging they operated an illegal gambling business in which high-stakes poker games were played at an Encino mansion Arenas owned.

Arenas, 43, a.k.a. “Agent Zero,” of Woodland Hills, is charged with one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business, one count of operating an illegal gambling business, and one count of making false statements to federal investigators.

He is scheduled to make his initial appearance and be arraigned this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

Also charged in the indictment and arrested today in connection with the illegal gambling business charges are:

Yevgeni Gershman, 49, a.k.a. “Giora,” of Woodland Hills; a suspected organized crime figure from Israel;
Evgenni Tourevski, 48, a.k.a. “Eugene,” of Tarzana;
Allan Austria, 52, a.k.a. “Elica,” of West Hills;
Yarin Cohen, 27, a.k.a. “YC,” of Tarzana; and
Ievgen Krachun, 43, of Tarzana.
Each of these defendants is charged with one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business and one count of operating an illegal gambling business. Their initial appearances and arraignments are scheduled for this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.

According to the indictment returned on July 15 and unsealed today, from September 2021 to July 2022, Gershman, Arenas, and the other defendants operated an illegal gambling business. Arenas rented out an Encino mansion he owned for the purpose of hosting high-stakes illegal poker games. At Arenas’ direction, Arthur Kats, 51, of West Hollywood, staged the mansion to host the games, found co-conspirators to host the games, and collected rent from the co-conspirators on Arenas’ behalf.

Gershman, Tourevski, Austria, and Cohen managed illegal “Pot Limit Omaha” poker games, among other illegal games, at the Encino mansion, collected a “rake” – a fee the house charged from each pot either as a percentage or a fixed amount per hand – and invited players to compete.

Gershman hired young women who, in exchange for tips, served drinks, provided massages, and offered companionship to the poker players. The women were charged a “tax” – a percentage of their earnings from working the games. Chefs, valets, and armed security guards also were hired to staff these illegal poker games.

Krachun worked as a “chip runner,” in which he tracked players’ wins and losses, distribute poker chips to players, and pay employees.

Gershman, an Israeli citizen, also is charged along with Valentina Cojocari, 35, of Woodland Hills, with three additional counts – conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, marriage fraud, and making a false statement on an immigration document. In early 2022, Gershman conspired with Cojocari to enter into a sham marriage for the purposes of obtaining permanent legal status in the United States and lied to immigration authorities to procure legal status for Gershman, who provided financial support to Cojocari in exchange for her participation in the sham marriage.

Both Gershman and Cojocari submitted false information on their U.S. immigration forms, including Gershman’s answers of “no” as to whether he had ever been detained by any law enforcement official and as to whether he intended to engage in illegal gambling or any other form of commercialized vice.

Cojocari also was arrested today and is scheduled to make her initial appearance and be arraigned this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

If convicted, the defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each count.

Homeland Security Investigations’ Northridge Office, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Major Crimes Division – Transnational Organized Crime Section, and IRS Criminal Investigation are investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Samuel J. Diaz of the Transnational Organized Crime Section is prosecuting this case. Assistant United States Attorney Ryan J. Waters of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section is handling the asset forfeiture-related portion of this case.

Very similar to the ABC 7 article, which looks like they just stole from the DOJ!

[1dollarboxcar]

kinda surprised he got charged, since Israel mafia is involved...

[Ryback_feed_me_more]

Is it wrong to be disappointed Eli Elezra's name didnt show up in this investigation.

Fine job using our tax dollars to chase down bloody poker players as usual. How about we arrest some damn pedophiles (sorry wasnt impressed with that storm the cockpit story with the Delta Co Pilot and now his wife)

Always taking the easy way to pad arrest stats to look like your doing something noble. For fucks sake pretty sure our favorite stinky persian can verify theres a lot worse going on in games in and around the Washington DC area but they get a free pass because theyre who they are.

[Orko]

I don't buy the narraritive that Arenas was in w the Jewish mob, more like him and his NBA buddies were targeted by the Jewish mob.
Easy mark sfo

What was he thinking lol.

I'm not so sure those guys are in the Jewish mob, the Jewish mob is in the Trump and Netanyahu admin and the biggest players on wall street.

Atleast the media has stopped calling them the Russian mob.

[Dan Druff]

I don't buy the narraritive that Arenas was in w the Jewish mob, more like him and his NBA buddies were targeted by the Jewish mob.
Easy mark sfo

What was he thinking lol.

He wasn't in the Israeli mob.

He somehow got to know these Israeli mobsters, and asked them to help him run this poker game out of a house he rented in Encino. They basically ran everything and he collected his portion of the money.

A lot of people don't realize that the hookers described in this story are pretty much standard at most high stakes underground games nowadays. I'm not talking about ones informally set up by players for other players, but the organized ones like this almost always have hookers as part of the equation. And then these girls have to give a cut of the action to the house, just like a pimping arrangement.

[Dan Druff]

A new twist.... murder!!!





Somehow reporter Colleen Williams is less gray now than in the 1980s.

[Dan Druff]

In the meantime, Arenas is publicly denying involvement in running the game:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/NoChillGilZero/status/1950744149558522304



But this picture Arenas texted to one of the co-defendants tells a different story:

[Dan Druff]

Back to Heidi Planck's murder, though.

At first I wondered if Planck was one of the hookers who had worked the game, and perhaps was murdered by one of the perverts who engaged her services at one point.

But upon further reading, I find that unlikely. Planck was 39 -- too old to likely be hired in a setting where "young women" were said to be recruited. Furthermore, in 2022 it seems the suspicion was that she was murdered by stock fraudster Jason Sugarman.

Sugarman is the son-in-law of a Dodgers part owner (Peter Gruber), and was business partners with a former Hunter Biden associate (Devin Archer) who turned on the Biden family to report on them.

What is her connection to Arenas and the Israeli mob? Probably not much. She was last seen in a downtown LA high rise apartment, one which was believed to have also housed illegal poker games. However, there's no evidence that she had any involvement with the games, and it's possible that the group running Arenas' game was not connected to the one from that apartment. Even if it was connected, I'm guessing her murder had nothing to do with the game, but rather someone playing in the games (such as Sugarman) had invited or brought her there.

[Kalam]

As you said, these games are pretty ubiquitous and not even that hard to get in if you hang around the poker scene. Years ago when I was playing bigger and more serious I was approached by a guy I was fairly friendly with at the tables who offered to get me in a game as part of an arrangement where I would cut him some portion of my winnings. But I was already married and settled down, and the games were all late at night in the Valley, so I wasn't really interested.

Sort of like when a random bookie gets busted, makes you wonder why the DOJ cared enough about the Arenas games to get involved at all?