Yevgeni Gershman, 50, of Woodland Hills, was a central figure in a gambling operation that ran out of a mansion on Gable Drive in Encino, where organizers hosted high-stakes poker games, authorities said. A man with alleged ties to Israeli organized crime helped run high-stakes illegal poker games at a luxury Encino mansion owned by former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas, according to authorities and court documents. Gershman also has criminal convictions in Israel , including conspiracy to commit murder and narcotics trafficking, L.A. federal prosecutors said in court filings. He also allegedly sent coded text messages to women inviting them to work the illegal poker games — in one case asking if a woman was open to engaging in prostitution at the house. The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Transnational Organized Crime Section and IRS Criminal Investigation.

Source: Los Angeles Times April 09, 2026 11:36 UTC