The Eastern District of California has unsealed a three-count indictment charging 4 defendants in connection to an illegal gambling operation. U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert, announced that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of California was lodging indictment charges on 4 LA residents.
The residents in question include well-known professional poker player Gal Yifrach, 35. Yifrach and the other residents are being charged with various crimes in connection to the unlawful betting business. Specifically, the Eastern District of California is charging Yifrach with operating an unlawful gambling business, as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Nick Shkolnik, 39, on the other hand, is being charged with running an illegal gambling business alongside Yifrach. The other 2 residents, 33-year-old Schneur Rosenfeld and 32-year-old Shalom Ifrah are being accused of conspiring to carry out money laundering. Another individual by the name of Yosef Yitzchak Beshari was also tied to the case.
Yosef, however, was charged elsewhere. Yifrach, Shkolnik, and Yosef were accused of carrying out prohibited gambling businesses that involved video slot machines and devices, as well as wagers. According to court documents, these crimes were carried out in various locations including but not limited to the Eastern District of California.
Yifrach and Ifrah were accused of colluding to ‘wash’ the profits of the illegal gambling operating in several ways. Some of the ways mentioned in court documents include exchanging cash for checks, as well as casino chips in exchange for cash. The group would also avoid carrying out cash exchanges and transactions of less than $10,000 in banks in order to avoid detection.
Rosenfeld and Beshari were accused of conspiring to launder the profits of the business in various ways including direct deposits of made-up salaries, as well as supplying checks. Wire transfers to escrow companies were also made in exchange for cash that was acquired from the illegal gambling operation. All the defendants in connection to the case were arrested but only Ifrah and Yifrach were detained pending the trial.
The remaining defendants Shkolnik and Rosenfeld were released soon after under pretrial supervision. The case was brought forward by the FBI and the Bureau of Gambling Control, which runs under the California Department of Justice. Assistant U.S. Attorney Miriam R. Hinman was also named as the case prosecutor.
According to court records, this illegal gambling operation apparently occurred between March 2018 and July 2020. Yifrach is said to have won his very first WSOP bracelet the same year that he started the illegal gambling business. During his first WSOP bracelet win in 2018, Yifrach took part in the $3,000 six-max no-limit hold’em event where he managed to beat a field of 868 total entries to walk away with the top cash prize of $461,798.
Before this huge tournament, Yifrach had already won a WSOP Circuit ring in 2017. In 2020, Yifrach celebrated another career milestone when he came in third during WSOP’s $50,000 buy-in high roller event. It was also at this event that celebrated his largest score as a professional online poker player with $495,305 in winnings.
Another accused Nick Shkolnik, is also a well-recognized online poker pro. Shkolnik also boasts an excess of $1 million in live tournament winnings. He is also a WSOPC ring holder. According to the authorities investigating this case, the gambling business that the LA residents had set up was quite sophisticated.
Investigators had to intercept communications from the group, which is how they unearthed that the scheme had been taking place for over 4 long years. According to the department of justice, Yifrach would often take the money made from illegal machines and exchanged it for chips in various casinos including Bell Gardens in California. These chips were then converted to checks that were paid directly into Yifrach’s account.
What we cover
Guilty Pleas Were Recently Announced
Just recently, the federal government confirmed that Yosef Yitzchak Beshari and Efraim Journo had pleaded guilty to the charges discussed above. Both the parties admitted to running an unlawful gambling business as well as conspiring to launder the money made from the illegal business. Beshari and Journo will be sentenced this June by Judge William Shubb.
Both Beshari and Journo are facing a maximum of 5 years, as well as a fine of $250,000 for their involvement in the illegal business. Beshari, specifically, faces the 20-year maximum penalty in prison, as well as a hefty fine for conspiring to launder the profits of the illegal business.
Last summer, the federal government also filed a forfeiture complaint and indicated that it would be seizing close to $320,000 in cash from Yifrach. In addition to the cash, the government also seized 4.24975436 in Bitcoin, which when converted was worth approximately $174,000.
Illegal gambling rings have always been subject to grave law enforcement action as is evidenced by this case. Illegal gambling rings provide people with alternative ways to gamble. However, because they are not regulated by the government, these rings tend to be run by opportunistic and dangerous criminals. People that run these rings successfully typically generate millions over the years.
Illegal gambling rings can be operated anywhere even somewhere as sacred as a church. In many states, these operations are classified as organized crime and are thus punished severely. Some gambling operations are operated by an individual or a shot caller. However, in many instances, most rings are run by a group of trustees, like in Gal Yifrach’s case.
Final Thoughts
Over the years, many illegal gambling operations have been set up, with some operations lasting for decades before being discovered. Some of the largest illegal gambling busts have taken place in Asia. For instance, in May 2020, police in Vietnam broke up an online gambling ring that was worth an estimated $2.6 billion.
This gambling ring ran from 2018 to 2020 and the police arrested 16 individuals in connection to the case. To this day, the $2.6 billion gambling ring, which was being operated on an online website known as No Hu stands as Vietnam’s largest and most successful gambling ring in history.
