Former NBA star Gilbert Arenas was arrested this week and charged by federal authorities for his alleged connection to high stakes, and illegal, poker games held at his Los Angeles home. Arenas was hit with three charges including one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business, one count of operating an illegal gambling business and one count of making false statements to federal investigators.
Four other men were arrested and charged along with Arenas including Yevgeni Gershman, Evgenni Tourevski, Allan Austria, Yarin, Cohen, and Ievgen Krachun. According to a report on ESPN.com, Gershman is also alleged to have ties to Israeli organized crime groups. All of the defendants in the case are based in California and received the same charges as Arenas.
According to the Justice Department, the accused alleged ran a high stakes poker game from September 2021 to July 2022 at a mansion that Arenas rented specifically for that purpose. The group is also accused of recruiting women to provide companionship to players and charged the woman a percentage of their earnings for the privilege.
Arenas’ attorney Jerome Friedberg told ESPN.com that no one should be rushing to judge Arenas saying, “At this point in the case, he is presumed innocent, right?. He has the same right as any other citizen to that presumption and that’s how he should be treated.”
A less filtered view of the situation came from Arenas’ former teammate Kwame Brown who told Fadeaway World, “You’re facing fifteen years, five years on each charge, right? But your dumba** was playing cards with the Israeli Mob. So now you’re going to have to make a decision. You can’t snitch, because your dumba** said you’re ‘No Chill Gil’ so you can’t chill. You’ve got to fight this one out.”
Arenas has been retired from the NBA since 2012.