Fourth Plea Deal in Trincher-Linked NYC Poker, Sportsbetting Prosecutions

A fourth plea deal is now pending in the Eastern District of New York prosecutions of a major sportsbetting and high-stakes poker ring that operated in New York City, and that included both prominent poker players and alleged links to Russian organized crime.  Edwin Ting, one of 34 defendants in the case, will plead guilty September 4th to a single gambling-business charge of helping organize the ring's poker games.

Ting was among a dozen or so defendants with noted poker tournament cashes, having won more than $80,000 in several East Coast events in recent years.  Ting's pending plea deal was first reported in a New York Daily News piece, which also claimed a similar deal is also pending for another minor defendant in the case, prominent player Justin "BooostedJ" Smith; however, the possible Smith deal cannot be confirmed at this time from online court dockets.

Ting was charged with helping to operate the high-stakes poker games centered around former WPT champion Vadim Trincher, who remains indicted on several more serious charges.  Those games were often held in Trincher's own high-rise, Trump Towers apartment, the same elite location over which Trincher filed a $6 million mold-damage lawsuit against Trump Towers management, alleging faulty plumbing repairs.

The sweeping indictments in the case, US v. Tokhtakhounov et al, allege that Trincher and other heads of the NYC-based syndicate operated under the protection and guidance of Russian organized crime boss Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov.  Tokhtakhounov, known as "Taiwanchik" and "Akim", was also tied to the celebrity West Coast games featuring several Hollywood actors (Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and others) that were hosted and organized by Molly Bloom, another of the case's defendants.

Tokhtakhounov remains a fugitive from US justice, wanted international on arms-smuggling charges and domestically for his role in organizing an attempted fix of an Olympic event during the Salt Lake City Games.  The indictment alleges that millions were siphoned off from the poker and sportsbetting operations, and sent overseas to Tokhtakhounov and his other interests.

Ting's relatively minor role could still have netted him a five-year term, though he'll likely receive a much shorter sentence later this fall.  Ting becomes the fourth defendant of 34 indicted to plead guilty in the case, following similar deals for East Coasters William Barbalot and Kirill Rapoport and  a self-described Hollywood film producer, Bryan Zuriff, who was likely collected to the Bloom-run L.A. games.

Texas Sportsbetting Sting Cites Gregg Merkow, 17 Others

Prominent Texas poker pro Gregg Merkow was among 18 defendants named in a major sportsbetting sting which took place in Texas, and which was announced to the public in a press conference at which more than $4.7 million in seized proceeds was awarded to the city of Plano, where much of the illicit activity is alleged to have taken place.

According to several reports from local Texas outlets and the USAO's recent presser, the investigation into the ring stretched over a decade, beginning in 2001 and having major developments in March of 2011, when search warrants were executed against participants in the operation.  The investigation continued on from there, with the defendants being indicted last summer.

The size of the gambling ring was significant, according to reports.  In addition to live bets being accepted throughout the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, where the ring was centered, authorities allege that more than $5.4 billion in gross wagers were made through more than two dozen interconnected online sportsbetting sites in a little more than four years.  All the sites were incorporated and maintained in Curacao.

Merkow was reported as being a bookie for the group, and may well have served as investigators' access point, who in the sting's earliest phase were looking into another, smaller operation.  The good news for Merkow and the others is that most of them received only probation or a suspended sentence, except for the ring's leader, Albert Sydney Reed, Jr.,  Reed received a sentence of one year plus one day.

Merkow isn't due to be sentenced until December, but is likely to receive probation or a suspended sentence.  The real hit to Merkow and the others was the seizure of more than $10 million in cash and other assets alleged to be connected to the operation.  In Merkow's case, he lost the $233,000 that he claimed in an appeal was his poker-playing bankroll, along with jewelry and gold coins, including at least one family heirloom.

Merkow, who won a WSOPC event at Tunica in 2005 for more than $570,000, defeating Amnon Filippi for the win, has about $1.5 million in career tournament earnings.  His attempt to claim his seized funds back from authorities was mentioned in this 2012 KXAN piece, where they reported, "I am a professional poker player and have been for a number of years. In order to participate in this profession, it is necessary to have a cash hoard which is accessible on short notice ... Part of the money is my cash hoard which I have accumulated over the last 20 years or so."

Despite the fact that Merkow kept poker-playing records, such claims usually fall on deaf ears, as happened with Richard "Chinaman" Lee, who finished sixth in the WSOP main event and lost an even larger chunk of assets when authorities in San Antonio busted up a sportsbetting operation there several years ago.  Merkow thus gets added to the lengthy, lengthy list of prominent poker players who have had bookmaking-related scrapes with the law.  In this case it's a quarter-million-dollar life tax, right?

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