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(CNN) – The mafia is on the middle of two large FBI probes into the not too long ago introduced playing and sports activities rigging schemes.
The twin investigations are wanting into allegations of insider info used to put bets on NBA video games and rig underground poker video games.
It’s a dishonest scandal that rocked the NBA and on the core, includes members of New York City’s most infamous crime households.
“Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese and Geonovese crime families,” New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated.
“Spook,” “Flappy,” “Juice” and “The Wrestler are just some of the nicknames of men allegedly tied to the scheme.
La Cosa Nostra is the nickname given to the Italian-American mob. Their lore dates back decades to when the families ran criminal enterprises in New York City often in competition with each other.
According to court paperwork, mob families teamed up and adopted new technology to rig poker games, allegedly taking nearly $2 million from a single victim.
“And when people refused to pay, these defendants did what organized crime has always done, they used threats, they used intimidation, and they used violence,” Tisch stated.
As a part of the investigation, authorities scanned hundreds of hours of surveillance video to search out the lads, together with one dubbed, “Big Bruce.”
Court paperwork present this group already ran unlawful playing operations backed by the Bonanno crime household once they obtained concerned within the poker scheme.
Same goes for a defendant, who glided by the title, “Flappy, who in text messaged confirmed his illegal ring was backed by the Gambino crime family.
“This alleged illegal gambling operation hustled unwitting victims out of tens of millions of dollars and created a financial pipeline for La Cosa Nostra to help fund and facilitate their organized criminal activity,” stated Christopher Raia, assistant director answerable for the FBI’s New York Field Office.
Defendant Robert Stroud, known as “Black Rob,” allegedly equipped rigged shuffling machines to the operations and helped perform a theft to steal one.
Sal Piacente, President- UniverSal Game Protection: “That shuffle machine is altered to transmit to an earpiece to tell the people who are gonna win,” stated Sal Piacenter, president of UniverSal Game Protection.
Federal prosecutors have requested that a number of the dozens of defendants be detained on the brand new fees, citing their mob ties like Angelo Ruggiero Jr., a member of the Gambino household who allegedly boasted in jail about being tight with former boss John Gotti Sr. and that “he had shot a man in the chest.”
Some defendants have entered not guilt pleas and in some circumstances, have even posted bail.
Copyright 2025 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.
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