LOS ANGELES — Former NBA star Gilbert Arenas was arrested Wednesday together with 5 different individuals, together with a suspected member of an Israeli organized crime group, on suspicion of internet hosting unlawful high-stakes poker video games at a Los Angeles mansion owned by Arenas, federal prosecutors mentioned.
All six defendants are charged with one depend of conspiracy to function an unlawful playing enterprise and one depend of working an unlawful playing enterprise, in accordance with an announcement from the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace. They had been all scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.
Arenas, 43, can be charged with making false statements to federal investigators, the assertion mentioned. He’s named within the indictment as ”Agent Zero,” a nickname from his enjoying days with the Washington Wizards.
Arenas appeared in courtroom Wednesday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles and was launched on a $50,000 bond after pleading not responsible to the fees. His trial is scheduled for Sept. 23.
His lawyer Jerome Friedberg mentioned outdoors the courthouse that he hadn’t had a lot time to talk together with his consumer and could not touch upon the case.
“At this level within the case, he’s presumed harmless, proper?” Friedberg mentioned. “He has the identical proper as every other citizen to that presumption and that is how he ought to be handled.”
The opposite 5 defendants are residents of Los Angeles, ranging in age from 27 to 52. Amongst them is a 49-year-old man described by prosecutors as “a suspected organized crime determine from Israel.”
The indictment says that from September 2021 to July 2022, the defendants staged the house within the Encino neighbourhood to host “Pot Restrict Omaha” poker video games and different unlawful playing exercise. The poker gamers paid a “rake,” a charge charged as a proportion or fastened quantity from every hand gambled, courtroom paperwork declare.
One of many defendants employed younger girls who, in trade for ideas, served drinks and supplied massages and “provided companionship” to the poker gamers, in accordance with prosecutors.
“The ladies had been charged a ‘tax’ – a proportion of their earnings from working the video games. Cooks, valets, and armed safety guards additionally had been employed to employees these unlawful poker video games,” the assertion mentioned.
The Israeli man faces separate prices together with marriage fraud and mendacity on immigration paperwork. He’s suspected of conspiring with a 35-year-old Los Angeles lady to enter right into a sham marriage for the needs of acquiring everlasting authorized standing within the U.S.
If convicted, the defendants would face a statutory most sentence of 5 years in federal jail for every depend, prosecutors mentioned.
Arenas averaged 20.7 factors throughout an 11-year profession with 4 groups, most notably a seven-plus season stint in Washington from 2004-11.
Charismatic and mercurial, Arenas — who counted “Agent Zero” (representing his quantity) and “Hibachi” for the way in which he might warmth up throughout a recreation amongst his many nicknames — was a three-time all-star, a gifted scorer and one of many key cogs in a handful of Wizards groups that loved modest success within the mid-to-late 2000s.
But Arenas’ run in Washington resulted in shame. Arenas and teammate Javaris Crittenton had been suspended for the stability of the NBA season in January 2010 following a locker-room incident through which each gamers pulled weapons on one another.
Arenas returned to play briefly for Washington the next season earlier than being traded to Orlando. He then bounced to Memphis in 2011, coming off the bench for 17 video games earlier than stepping away to play within the Chinese language Basketball Affiliation in 2012-13. He by no means returned to the NBA.
His son, Alijah Arenas, was a Los Angeles highschool basketball star who’s a extremely touted freshman participant for the College of Southern California. His faculty profession is on maintain pending knee surgical procedure and rehab is predicted to take months, the college mentioned final week.
