Sept04,2013:
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Edwin Ting and Justin Smith pled guilty today in Manhattan federal court to their respective roles in high-stakes illegal gambling businesses connected to organized crime enterprises. Ting pled guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Jesse M. Furman to conducting an illegal gambling business, an illegal poker game. Smith pled guilty before Judge Furman to accepting a financial instrument in connection with unlawful Internet gambling, an illegal sportsbook…
According to the indictment, other documents filed in this case, and statements made at various conferences in this case:
Ting ran a high-stakes illegal poker game in New York City from 2010 through 2013. At these games, the pots frequently reached tens of thousands of dollars or more. The operators of these games, including Ting, collected percentages of the pots known as “rakes.” These poker games employed at least five or more people to assist with the operation of the games, payments of debts, and collection of debts.
Smith assisted Hillel Nahmad, Illya Trincher, and others in operating their own high-stakes sportsbook in New York that catered to millionaires and billionaires. Those clients typically placed bets online through various accounts maintained on gambling websites that were operating illegally in the United States. Tens of millions of dollars in bets were placed through those online accounts each year.
Original indictment in April: Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges 34 Members and Associates of Two Russian-American Organized Crime Enterprises with Operating International Sportsbooks That Laundered More Than $100 Million