Gilbert Arenas was arrested Thursday in connection with a federal indictment that alleges the former NBA star hosted illegal high-stakes poker games at his mansion in Encino, California, according to a release from the United States Attorney's Office of Central California.
Arenas is officially charged with 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. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance and be arraigned in U.S. District Court on Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles.
Yevgeni «Giora» Gershman, a suspected high-level member of an Israeli organized crime group, and several other associates also were indicted and arrested in connection with the illegal business, which allegedly operated from September 2021 to July 2022.
According to the indictment, Arenas rented out his Encino house, while one of his associates staged the mansion for the poker games, recruited co-conspirators to host, and collected rent from the co-conspirators on Arenas' behalf.
Gershman and the other defendants ran illegal «Pot Limit Omaha» poker games, among others, that collected a cut from each pot contested.
The group hired chefs, valets, and armed security guards to staff the games, as well as young women who served drinks, provided massages, and offered companionship to the poker players in exchange for tips; the co-conspirators took a cut of the servers' tips from the games.
It was unclear as of Wednesday who the players of the games were. The USAO declined further comment.
If convicted, Arenas and the other defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each
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