\nKirill Rapoport pleaded guilty in August to running poker games in Manhattan. He\u2019s one of more than 30 people charged in connection with a $100 million gambling operation tied to Russian mobsters. The feds contend he used threats of violence \u2014 and on at least one occasion mixed martial arts goons \u2014 to scare losers into paying up.<\/p>\n
\tPay up \u2014 or step inside the cage.<\/p>\n
\tA Brooklyn tough guy brought two menacing mixed martial arts fighters with him to collect a debt from a poker player, according to federal prosecutors who asked a judge to give the crook at least six months in jail.<\/p>\n
\tKirill Rapoport, 41, one of more than 30 people charged in April in connection with a $100 million gambling operation tied to Russian mobsters, pleaded guilty in August to running poker games in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
\tThe feds contend he acted as a \u201ccollector\u201d who used threats of violence \u2014 and on at least one occasion MMA goons \u2014 to scare losers into paying up. He worked alongside Arthur Azen, 44, of Staten Island, who pleaded guilty last month to money laundering conspiracy and extortionate credit collection.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cOn Oct. 5, 2012, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents observed the defendant, Azen and two mixed martial arts fighters go to meet with a player in Azen\u2019s poker games, who based on earlier interceptions appeared to be delinquent in playing Azen\u2019s debts,\u201d prosecutors wrote Sunday in a presentence letter to Manhattan Federal Judge Jesse Furman.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cOut of concern that Rapoport, Azen and the MMA fighters might physically harm the player and in order not to reveal the ongoing FBI investigation, the FBI arranged for the New York City Police Department to intervene in the meeting by claiming they had received a report of someone smoking marijuana in the area,\u201d the feds added.<\/p>\n
\tFBI agents later spoke to the poker player, who confirmed that he owed Azen $35,000 to $40,000 in poker debts.<\/p>\n
\tRapoport faces up to five years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday. His plea deal calls for six to 12 months behind bars.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe defendant\u2019s role in the offense was serious. He was not a dealer or a bartender,\u201d prosecutors said in the presentencing letter. \u201cHis job was to make sure that bettors at Azen\u2019s illegal poker games and bettors of Azen\u2019s sports book paid their debts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tProsecutors said Rapoport was a relatively small cog in an operation that catered to wealthy gamblers and celebrities.<\/p>\n
\tHis lawyer Jay Schwitzman told reporters in August that what Rapoport did was \u201chardly different from what you and I do when we play poker.\u201d Schwitzman also said the feds targeted Rapoport because of his Russian background.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThey targeted him because of his ethnicity \u2026 He was not part of any Russian mob,\u201d Schwitzman said.<\/p>\n
\tBut when Rapoport was arrested April 16, he had brass knuckles in his dresser and an inoperable gun in his apartment, prosecutors said in their letter.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThese weapons are the tools of the trade for an \u2018enforcer\u2019 who threatens the use of force to collect debts,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
\tThe feds declined to provide details on the so-called MMA fighters Monday, and Schwitzman declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Posted by:<\/strong> Dr Crapology on December 19, 2013, 12:29 pm<\/p>\n \tDoc<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kirill Rapoport pleaded guilty in August to running poker games in Manhattan. He\u2019s one of more than 30 people charged in connection with a $100 million gambling operation tied to Russian mobsters. The feds contend he used threats of violence…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}