Gilbert Arenas arrested on prices of unlawful poker video games

Gilbert Arenas was arrested Wednesday in reference to a federal indictment that alleges the previous NBA star hosted unlawful high-stakes poker video games at his mansion in Encino, California, based on a launch from the United States Attorney’s Office of Central California.

Arenas is formally charged with one depend of conspiracy to function an unlawful playing enterprise, one depend of working an unlawful playing enterprise and one depend of constructing false statements to federal investigators.

He appeared in U.S. District Court on Wednesday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles and was launched on a $50,000 bond after pleading not responsible to the costs. His trial is scheduled for Sep. 23.

His lawyer, Jerome Friedberg, stated exterior the courthouse that he hadn’t had a lot time to talk along with his shopper and could not touch upon the case.

“At this point in the case, he is presumed innocent, right?” Friedberg stated. “He has the same right as any other citizen to that presumption and that’s how he should be treated.”

Yevgeni “Giora” Gershman, a suspected high-level member of an Israeli organized crime group, and 4 different associates additionally had been indicted and arrested in reference to the alleged unlawful enterprise, which prosecutors say operated from September 2021 to July 2022.

According to the indictment, Arenas rented out his Encino home and considered one of his associates staged the mansion for the poker video games, recruited co-conspirators to host and picked up hire from the co-conspirators on Arenas’ behalf.

The indictment alleges that Gershman and the opposite defendants ran unlawful “Pot Limit Omaha” poker video games, amongst others, which collected a reduce from every pot contested.

Prosecutors say that the group employed cooks, valets and armed safety guards to employees the video games — in addition to younger ladies who served drinks, offered massages and provided companionship to the poker gamers in change for suggestions — and that the co-conspirators took a reduce of the servers’ suggestions from the video games.

It was unclear as of Wednesday who the gamers within the video games had been. The U.S. lawyer’s workplace declined additional remark.

If convicted, Arenas and the opposite defendants would face a statutory most sentence of 5 years in federal jail for every depend.

This isn’t the primary time Arenas has discovered himself in bother regarding card video games. In December 2009, Arenas and Washington Wizards teammate Javaris Crittenton had been concerned in an incident the place they introduced weapons into the locker room, which Arenas later stated was the results of trash speak from a card sport on a crew flight.

Arenas, 43, final performed within the NBA in 2012 with the Memphis Grizzlies. The three-time All-Star averaged 20.7 factors per sport over components of 11 seasons with the Wizards, Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors and Orlando Magic.

Information from The Associated Press was used on this report.