Former NBA star Gilbert Arenas and six other people allegedly played high-end illegal poker games on Los Angeles houses rented by “Agent Zero” players, federal authorities said Wednesday.
According to the charging documents, these eight are related to the games allegedly played between September 12, 2021 and July 20, 2022.
Prosecutors said in court records that Arenas “will rent a home on Gable Drive on Encino, a suburb of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles” with the aim of hosting illegal poker games. ”
Although escrowing cash poker games is not illegal, this operation is involved in criminal acts as organizers will “collect 'rakes', that is, the house will charge for each hand or charge for each hand from each pot”, according to the fee documents.
Officials said the operation even included a poker labeled “Arenas Poker Club” and featured the image of Arenas in his basketball uniform and famous No. Zero.
Arenas, Yevgeni “Giora” Gersham, Evgenni “Eugene” Tolevski, Allan “Elicia” Austria, Yarin “YC” Cohen, Arthur Kats, Ievgen Krachun and Valentina Cojocari are all responsible and are expected to make their first appearance at the seven-seat muzzle on Wednesday afternoon.
- All but Cojocari were appointed on the first two counts of conspiracy and illegal gambling.
- Arneas was charged with making false statements to investigators in the third count.
- Gersham and Cojocari are charged with another conspiracy.
- Federal authorities accused Gersham of marrying Cojocari in order to evade U.S. immigration laws, the document said. ”
- The accusation paperwork says Gersham and Cojocari are charged with abusing visas on the fifth count.
- Authorities say Kuchokari allegedly made false statements in his immigration application.
The defendant was accepted by agents from LAPD, Homeland Security Investigation and IRS without incident Wednesday.
This is a developing story. Please check it for updates.