Queens residents, NBA coach among dozens charged in mob-run poker scheme

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella, Jr. speaks at a press conference announcing the arrests of Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier in connection with a federal investigation into sports betting and illegal gambling. AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis

By Jacob Kaye

Federal agents arrested over two dozen people – including four from Queens and an NBA Hall of Famer – who they say were behind a mob-run poker ring that spanned multiple states and tricked a number of players out of millions of dollars.

Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York said on Thursday that they arrested 31 people for running rigged, illegal poker games, which were organized by the members of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese organized crime families, and involved Chauncey Billups, the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and Damon Jones, a former NBA player.

Four of the people arrested on Thursday were from Queens, including Seth Trustman, a 41-year-old who ran an underground poker game in Manhattan on behalf of the La Cosa Nostra.

Over a dozen of the people arrested are alleged members of an organized crime family.

The arrests sent a shockwave through New York and the NBA on Thursday when federal prosecutors also unveiled a second batch of related arrests of current NBA players who rigged professional basketball games on behalf of mobsters.

Prosecutors said that current NBA player, Terry Rozier, passed along insider information about players’ health, including his own, in order to rig prop bets.

Taken together, around three dozen people were cuffed for their alleged roles in the separate schemes, which prosecutors said brought in tens of millions of dollars for the New York crime families.

Those behind the rigged poker games used “highly sophisticated” technology to “cheat victims out of millions of dollars,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Joseph Nocella.

And when debts weren’t paid, some members of the scheme turned to assault, extortion and robbery, according to prosecutors.

The scheme relied on former NBA players and other former professional athletes, including Billups, to act as “face cards” and lure victims into high-stakes poker games.

But the games weren’t exactly fair.

“Using the allure of high-stakes winnings and the promise to play alongside well-known professional athletes, these defendants allegedly defrauded unwitting victims out of tens of millions of dollars and established a financial pipeline to La Cosa Nostra,” FBIAssistant Director in Charge Christopher Raia said in a statement. “This alleged scheme wreaked havoc across the nation, exploiting the notoriety of some and the wallets of others to finance the Italian crime families.”

Prosecutors say that the poker games began in 2019, when the defendants began using wireless cheating technology to rig the games.

Queens man Seth Trustman, right, allegedly helped run one of La Cosa Nostra’s poker games in Manhattan. Photo via USEDNY

The game organizers – including Trustman, who ran a game on Lexington Avenue – arranged for unwitting players to come play against famous athletes at the underground poker parlors.

But the players, who the scheme’s perpetrators allegedly called “fish,” didn’t know that several aspects of the otherwise normal poker games were fixed against them, according to the charges.

“What the victims, the fish, didn't know is that everybody else at the poker game, from the dealer to the players were in on the scam,” Nocella said.

Often in a legitimate poker game, a dealer may use a machine to shuffle the cards randomly before dealing them to the players. But the machines used in the mob’s underground games were allegedly designed to read the cards and determine which player at the table had the best odds of winning. The information would be sent to an off-site member of the poker ring, who would then communicate with a member of the scheme known as the “quarterback.” The quarterback would then signal to the other players at the table, who would then use the information to win the poker games.

The scammers also used a chip tray analyzer that could read cards, an x-ray table that could also read cards that were placed upside down, and special contact lenses and glasses that could read pre-marked cards.

Some of the victims allegedly lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single night. Prosecutors said that victims of the scheme lost at least $7 million.

The money profited through the scheme was used to fund the three crime families backing the games, according to prosecutors.

“My message to the defendants who have been rounded up today is this – your winning streak has ended, your luck has run out,” Nocella said. “Violating the law is a losing proposition, and you can bet on that.”

Among those arrested on Thursday were Kenny Han, Horatio Hu and Sophia Wei, all of whom lived in Queens and allegedly acted as players in the scheme.

Trustman, who was arrested over a decade ago for helping run a similar illegal poker game, was also charged on Thursday for extortion.

“When people refused to pay, these defendants did what organized crime has always done – they used threats, they used intimidation and they used violence,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. “It's the same pattern that we have seen for decades. Traditional mob enforcement methods, combined with new technology to expand the reach of their operation.”

Federal prosecutors said on Thursday that the investigations into both cases are ongoing.