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Doug GreenbergJul 30, 2025, 03:32 PM ET
Gilbert Arenas was arrested Thursday successful transportation with a national indictment that alleges the erstwhile NBA prima hosted amerciable high-stakes poker games astatine his mansion successful Encino, California, according to a merchandise from the United States Attorney's Office of Central California.
Arenas is officially charged with 1 number of conspiracy to run an amerciable gambling business, 1 number of operating an amerciable gambling business, and 1 number of making mendacious statements to national investigators. He is scheduled to marque his archetypal tribunal quality and beryllium arraigned successful U.S. District Court connected Thursday day successful Los Angeles.
Yevgeni "Giora" Gershman, a suspected high-level subordinate of an Israeli organized transgression group, and respective different associates besides were indicted and arrested successful transportation with the amerciable business, which allegedly operated from September 2021 to July 2022.
According to the indictment, Arenas rented retired his Encino house, portion 1 of his associates staged the mansion for the poker games, recruited co-conspirators to host, and collected rent from the co-conspirators connected Arenas' behalf.
Gershman and the different defendants ran amerciable "Pot Limit Omaha" poker games, among others, that collected a chopped from each cookware contested.
The radical hired chefs, valets, and equipped information guards to unit the games, arsenic good arsenic young women who served drinks, provided massages, and offered companionship to the poker players successful speech for tips; the co-conspirators took a chopped of the servers' tips from the games.
It was unclear arsenic of Wednesday who the players of the games were. The USAO declined further comment.
If convicted, Arenas and the different defendants would look a statutory maximum condemnation of 5 years successful national situation for each count.
This is not the archetypal clip Arenas has recovered himself successful occupation relating to paper games. In December 2009, Arenas and Washington Wizards teammate Javaris Crittenton were progressive successful an incidental wherever they brought guns into the locker room, which Arenas aboriginal said was the effect of trash speech from a paper crippled connected a squad flight.
Arenas, 43, past played successful the NBA successful 2012 with the Memphis Grizzlies. The three-time All-Star averaged 20.7 points per crippled implicit parts of 11 seasons with the Wizards, Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors and Orlando Magic.
