Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / White House Under Renovation as the NBA is Under Investigation

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White House Under Renovation as the NBA is Under Investigation · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say the Democrats, and I'm
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: talking about those that are elected, are officially as unhinged
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: as the radical extremists in their party. Why would I
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: say that, Well, let's just look at the list of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: unhinged things Democrats have been doing. You know, just over
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks, they shut down the government,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: leaving federal workers unpaid, to then demand free health care
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to illegal immigrants, and now they've decided to become even
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: more unhinged. I want to move to another fake controversy
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: for a moment, and that is the president units it's
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: of America doing White House renovations and it's not costing
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: taxpayers any dollars, but they're saying that Donald Trump is
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: destroying the White House. I want to play for you
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: a CNN report from twenty ten. In twenty ten, they
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: were talking about the three hundred and seventy six million
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: dollars White House renovation during the Obah administration that you
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: and I as taxpayers, paid for, and I want you
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: to listen to how it was celebrated on CNN. No
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: one was accusing Obama of quote, destroying the White House.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Sounds like they're building another wing to the White House.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: But we appreciate you keeping you.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: You could imagine to you today it's going to happen
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: for the next two years. All of the banging, the jackhammering,
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: the dust, the confusion, the noise of all places to
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: do construction is happening right here the front lawn of
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: the White House. It's a four year renovation project estimated
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: costs three hundred and seventy six million dollars.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Three hundred and seventy six million dollars. Now you and
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I paid for this, all right, I want to be clear.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Notice how jolly they were excited about it.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: They were happy that this was going on.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: No one was complaining about the White House renovations when
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: it costs three hundred seventy five million they were spending
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: it is great news. We also know that yes back
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Obama wrecked the White House, right and he put in
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: an indoor basketball court using taxpayer money. But that's totally fine, right,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: That's totally no big deal. Everything, it's totally okay. Teddy Roosevelt,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: by the way, built the West wing, Taffman Executive office,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: oval shaped FDR, added the entire east wing, and built
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: that indoor pool. Truman actually gutted the entire White House.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Nixon had a bowling alley built, Obama had the basketball
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: court constructed, and Trump is now building a ballroom, except
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: he's doing it with his own money and donor money,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: which brings us back to the ballroom blues. Sean Hannity
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: said it brilliantly on his show when he explained it
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: this way.
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: Since nineteen oh two, there have been at least fourteen
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: major renovations or additions completed by various presidents. Let's run
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: through them, shall we. Teddy Roosevelt built the West Wing
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: at the turn of the twentieth century, all tearing down
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: Thomas Jefferson's greenhouses. Nineteen oh nine, President William Howard taff
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: he added the first oval office to the West Wing.
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: It was nineteen twenty seven Calvin Coolidge. He conducted a
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: major renovation of the upper floors of the White House.
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: Nineteen twenty nine Hoover completely remodeled the West Wing, and
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: just five years later FDR remodeled the West Wing yet again,
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: even adding a second floor in a swimming pool indoors.
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: And by the way, FDR nineteen forty two he built
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: out the East wing, which is now being remodeled by
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: President Trump. In nineteen forty eight, Truman stripped the interior
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: of the White House, preserving only exterior walls. Nineteen seventy,
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: Richard Nixon converted the swimming pool into a modern day
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: press briefing room. You would think the press pool would
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: actually realize that president after president, they have renovated, they
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: have changed, they have upgraded the White House. This includes
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: major changes under both Clinton and Obama. Now, the Trump
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: induced anger and rage on the left is beyond idiotic,
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: and whether Democrats like it or not, one big, beautiful
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: new ballroom, paid for by the President himself and private
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: donations will soon host major historic events for decades to
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: come without spending one taxpayer penny.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: So if it's not costing your tax dollars, then what
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: do Democrats do next? They're lying about the president destroying
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: the White House. But there's got to be more there, right,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: You've got to find the controversy somehow in all of this. Well,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: leave it to Keem Jeffries, who's now said this on MSNBC.
• 4:35
  Speaker 6: Well, any executive authority, and more likely, this is part
• 4:39
  Speaker 6: of what Donald Trump has been doing since day one
• 4:42
  Speaker 6: of his presidency, running the largest pay to play scheme
• 4:46
  Speaker 6: in the history of the country, and probably soliciting donations
• 4:51
  Speaker 6: from people who've got business before the United States government,
• 4:55
  Speaker 6: and all of this is going to have to be investigated.
• 4:58
  Speaker 6: It will, all of this will have to be uncovered.
• 5:01
  Speaker 6: It will, and these people are going to be held
• 5:03
  Speaker 6: accountable no matter how long it takes. That's going to
• 5:07
  Speaker 6: be the reality of the situation. And that's our warning
• 5:10
  Speaker 6: to all of these people participating in this scheming to
• 5:14
  Speaker 6: manipulate taxpayer dollars and of course to destroy the people's House.
• 5:20
  Speaker 6: The White House belongs to the American people. It doesn't
• 5:23
  Speaker 6: belong to Donald Trump.
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: So there it is.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: We're launching an investigation over donor money for the ballroom renovation.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: That's right, He's going to use taxpayer dollars to investigate
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: privately funded renovations to the White House. But they celebrated
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the trashing of the White House when it was Barack
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Obama who was tearing it down and rebuilding it to
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the tune of three hundred plus million of your tax dours.
• 5:49
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• 5:53
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• 5:56
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• 5:59
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• 8:06
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• 8:10
  Speaker 1: running for president that he was going to restore law
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: and order. Now a lot of people thought that would
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: just be on basic issues like securing the southern border. Well,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: we now know the president is not playing by just
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: picking and choosing where he's going to enforce the law.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: It's for everyone, even the rich and famous, even sports
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: figures that are famous, even coaches in the NBA.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: We now have new.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Information about the Insiders sports betting and money laundering case
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: this coming out of New York. It includes wire fraud, conspiracy,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: money laundering, conspiracy, and prosecutors allege that a group to
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: use non public NBA injury and lineup info in some instances,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: staged early exits from games to place frauds and then
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: launder the proceeds. There are major names that are involved.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: Names.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: If you're a sports fan, you'll know very quickly. I
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: want you to hear what the FBI director had to
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: say about this as he was announcing it at the
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Department of Justice.
• 9:17
  Speaker 7: Good morning today. We are here in New York to
• 9:19
  Speaker 7: announce a historic arrests across a wide, sweeping criminal enterprise
• 9:24
  Speaker 7: that envelops both the NBA and Lacasa Nostra. The men
• 9:28
  Speaker 7: and women up here standing with me represent a small
• 9:30
  Speaker 7: portion of the leadership team that brought profound justice in
• 9:34
  Speaker 7: an era that needed it more than any I'll just
• 9:38
  Speaker 7: highlight some of the some of the details in the
• 9:40
  Speaker 7: case and the FBI work, and then you'll hear from
• 9:42
  Speaker 7: the others. But as you now know individuals such as
• 9:45
  Speaker 7: Chauncey Billups, Damon Jones, and Terry Rozier were taking into
• 9:49
  Speaker 7: custody today former current NBA players and coaches. What you
• 9:54
  Speaker 7: don't know is that this is an illegal gambling operation
• 9:58
  Speaker 7: and sports rigging operation, and that spanned the course of years.
• 10:01
  Speaker 7: The FBI led a coordinative takedown across eleven states to
• 10:05
  Speaker 7: arrest over thirty individuals today responsible for this case, which
• 10:09
  Speaker 7: is very much ongoing. Not only did we crack into
• 10:13
  Speaker 7: the fraud that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage
• 10:19
  Speaker 7: of the NBA, but we also entered and executed a
• 10:24
  Speaker 7: system of justice against La Casinoshra to include the Bonano, Gambino,
• 10:29
  Speaker 7: Genevesi and Luchas crime families, and you'll hear more about
• 10:32
  Speaker 7: those details today. The charges and the arrests that were
• 10:36
  Speaker 7: taken down across this country range from wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery,
• 10:40
  Speaker 7: illegal gambling. This FBI will leave no room for any
• 10:45
  Speaker 7: perpetrator of crime across this country. You hear a lot
• 10:48
  Speaker 7: about our work of defending the homeland and crushing violent crime. Well,
• 10:52
  Speaker 7: this work is also representative of a colossal portion of
• 10:55
  Speaker 7: the FBI's mandate to keep America safe and to keep
• 10:58
  Speaker 7: our entertainment industry fail and secure. The men and women
• 11:02
  Speaker 7: that are standing up here today worked tireless hours, days, months,
• 11:06
  Speaker 7: and years, and the fraud is mind boggling. It's not
• 11:10
  Speaker 7: hundreds of dollars, it's not thousands of dollars. It's not
• 11:13
  Speaker 7: tens of thousands of dollars. It's not even millions of dollars.
• 11:17
  Speaker 7: We're talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud
• 11:20
  Speaker 7: and theft and robbery across a multi year investigation. And
• 11:26
  Speaker 7: we could not have done it without our inneragency partners
• 11:28
  Speaker 7: that are before us today, The NYPD, HSI and teams
• 11:32
  Speaker 7: of law enforcement officials from around the country made this
• 11:35
  Speaker 7: day possible. It takes a team to bring this kind
• 11:39
  Speaker 7: of justice, sweeping justice into the halls of the United
• 11:43
  Speaker 7: States courtrooms, where our brave United States Attorney has led
• 11:46
  Speaker 7: this prosecution. It takes courageous prosecutors to stand before you
• 11:51
  Speaker 7: and say, we will not allow this kind of illicit
• 11:54
  Speaker 7: activity to happen not only at the national sporting level,
• 11:59
  Speaker 7: but also where it hides in La Casinostra. And when
• 12:03
  Speaker 7: these two collided together, they perpetrated a fraud that is
• 12:07
  Speaker 7: historic in terms of not just money, but the scheme
• 12:11
  Speaker 7: and the deceit that they utilize to steal and swindle
• 12:15
  Speaker 7: people from money, to include crypto fraud.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: This is an.
• 12:19
  Speaker 7: Operation that showcases to you that under President Trump's administration,
• 12:23
  Speaker 7: there is no room for any type of criminal behavior,
• 12:26
  Speaker 7: be it on the world's largest stage or in the
• 12:29
  Speaker 7: back rooms of tiny pollers where guard games are being plugged.
• 12:33
  Speaker 7: We are proud to stand here today with the men
• 12:36
  Speaker 7: and women of the FBI and this legal team, and
• 12:39
  Speaker 7: to the United States Attorney, I just want to thank
• 12:41
  Speaker 7: you personally for taking the time to display the work
• 12:46
  Speaker 7: that the media is about to hear about today in detail.
• 12:49
  Speaker 7: As I said, it does take courageous prosecutors, but it
• 12:51
  Speaker 7: takes a courageous United States Attorney to bring this case
• 12:54
  Speaker 7: because we are going to take heat for it. But
• 12:57
  Speaker 7: we don't shy away. In this administration. We don't say no.
• 13:00
  Speaker 7: What we do is we bring the results across the
• 13:02
  Speaker 7: finish line, We bring them to the public. We bring
• 13:04
  Speaker 7: you accountability, and yes, they will have their day in
• 13:06
  Speaker 7: court and you will hear the evidence through the court
• 13:08
  Speaker 7: system exclusively. We will not deny anyone of due process.
• 13:12
  Speaker 7: And that's the brilliance of this system. That's the brilliance
• 13:15
  Speaker 7: of this administration. Everyone will be held to account.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Now, let's talk about what these indictments actually are. The
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: key alleged episodes from the indictment include a March twenty third,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three Charlotte Hornets game, Rozier allegedly told Laster
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: that he would leave early with a purported injury, enabling
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: the underprop bets to happen. Two hundred thousand wagers replaced
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: many paid out after Roser exited at nine minutes. You
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: look at March twenty fourth of twenty twenty three. A
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: day later, Portland Trailblazers versus the Bulls, Ernest allegedly passed
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: a tip from a then NBA coach that the tops
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: would sit. One hundred thousand dollars was bet before the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: news became public, yielding major winnings when the lines then moved.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: April sixth, twenty twenty three, in the Magic versus the
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Cavaliers game, a tip from a Magic player connection that
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: starters would sit, and a bet on the Cavs against
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: the spread hit when Cleveland won by twenty four points.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: February the ninth, twenty twenty three and January the fifteenth,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, at a Lakers game, Damon Jones allegedly
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: sold pre release medical slash lineup info about star players,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: specifically for betting. January the twenty six and March twentieth
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four, the raptors, John Day Porter Games
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Porter allegedly agreed to exit early to benefit the unders
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Long five Fam and others, relaying info that led to
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: winning bets. Porter and Fam have already played guilty in
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: a related matter. Now, this also brings up another aspect
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: of these cases, and that is the mafia back connections
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: and the rigged underground poker case as well. I want
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: you to hear more about this from the FBI and
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: what they had to say at the press conference.
• 15:17
  Speaker 8: To be clear, we're announcing today indictments in two major cases,
• 15:23
  Speaker 8: both involving fraud. One involves sports betting and the other
• 15:28
  Speaker 8: involves illegal gambling, very specifically rigged poker games. The first
• 15:34
  Speaker 8: indictment involves six defendants who are alleged to have participated
• 15:38
  Speaker 8: one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online
• 15:43
  Speaker 8: sports betting became widely legalized in the United States. This
• 15:47
  Speaker 8: scheme is an insider sports betting conspiracy that exploited confidential
• 15:52
  Speaker 8: information about National Basketball Association athletes and teams. The second
• 15:58
  Speaker 8: indictment involves thirty one defendants alleged to have participated in
• 16:04
  Speaker 8: a nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games. These defendants,
• 16:11
  Speaker 8: which include former professional athletes, used high tech cheating technology
• 16:16
  Speaker 8: to steal millions of dollars from victims in underground poker
• 16:20
  Speaker 8: games that were secretly fixed. The games in the New
• 16:24
  Speaker 8: York area were backed by the Banano, Gambino, and Genovesei
• 16:29
  Speaker 8: crime families of Lakasa Nostra. While the cases are separate,
• 16:35
  Speaker 8: there are three overlapping defendants charged in both cases, Damon Jones,
• 16:40
  Speaker 8: Eric Ernest, and Shane Hennen. The indictments in these cases
• 16:45
  Speaker 8: contain only allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until
• 16:51
  Speaker 8: they are proven guilty in a court of law. But
• 16:54
  Speaker 8: my message to the defendants who've been rounded up today
• 16:57
  Speaker 8: is this, your winning streak has ended.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Your luck has run out.
• 17:03
  Speaker 8: Violating the law is a losing proposition, and you can
• 17:07
  Speaker 8: bet on that.
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: You can bet on that.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: There's also more to this the mafia backed and rigged
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: underground poker cases, and the unsealed charges in Brooklyn are
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: well pretty extensive, seven count indictment alleging wire fraud, conspiracy,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: money laundering, extortion, robbery, and related defenses tied to rigged
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: high stakes poker games in New York City, in the Hamptons,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas, and elsewhere. The DOJ says that multiple mob
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: families backed the games. Victims they say allegedly lost at
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: least seven million and thirty one defendants were arrested across
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: eleven different states, And you may ask yourself the question
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: how did the cheating work. What we now know is
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: this they had altered card shuffling machines and other covert
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: tech chip tray analyzers, X ray tables, marked card contacts
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: and glasses, and fed the winning hands to a quote
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: quarterback slash driver whose signaled teammates to ensure victims lost.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Some members allegedly use threats, assaults, and a gunpoint robbery
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: connected to the operations.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: Here's more about this again from the FBI.
• 18:32
  Speaker 8: But my message to the defendants who've been rounded up
• 18:34
  Speaker 8: today is this, your winning streak has ended, Your luck
• 18:39
  Speaker 8: has run out, violating the law is a losing proposition
• 18:45
  Speaker 8: and you can bet on that. First, I would like
• 18:50
  Speaker 8: to talk about the United States versus Ernest the NBA
• 18:54
  Speaker 8: basketball gambling case. The defendants in this case are Eric Earn,
• 19:01
  Speaker 8: Marvez Farley, Shane Hennon, de Niro, Laster, Damon Jones, a
• 19:08
  Speaker 8: former NBA player and coach, and Terry Rosier, a current
• 19:13
  Speaker 8: NBA player. Other co conspirators were previously charged for their
• 19:18
  Speaker 8: roles in the scheme, including former NBA player Johntay Porter.
• 19:24
  Speaker 8: Between December twenty twenty two and March twenty twenty four,
• 19:29
  Speaker 8: these defendants perpetrated a scheme to defraud by betting on inside,
• 19:34
  Speaker 8: non public information about NBA athletes and teams. The non
• 19:40
  Speaker 8: public information included when specific players would be sitting out
• 19:44
  Speaker 8: future games or when they would pull themselves out early
• 19:48
  Speaker 8: for purported injuries or illnesses. They relied on corrupt individuals,
• 19:53
  Speaker 8: including Jones and Rosier. They also misused information to obtained
• 19:58
  Speaker 8: through long standing friendships that they had with NBA players
• 20:02
  Speaker 8: and coaches, and in at least one instance, they got
• 20:06
  Speaker 8: their information by threatening a current player Porter because of
• 20:10
  Speaker 8: his pre existing gambling debts. Defendants used this non public
• 20:15
  Speaker 8: information to place hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent bets,
• 20:20
  Speaker 8: mostly in the form of prop bets on individual player performance.
• 20:25
  Speaker 8: The bets were placed through online sportsbooks and also in
• 20:29
  Speaker 8: person at casinos. The defendants relied on a network of
• 20:34
  Speaker 8: straw betters to place the maximum amount of bets to
• 20:38
  Speaker 8: increase their potential profits. Most of these bets succeeded and
• 20:43
  Speaker 8: the intended losses were in the millions of dollars. The
• 20:48
  Speaker 8: defendants then laundered their illegal winnings in various ways, peer
• 20:53
  Speaker 8: to peer platforms, bank wires, and simple cash exchanges. Stment
• 21:00
  Speaker 8: details specific examples where the defendants profited from illegal gambling
• 21:06
  Speaker 8: and illegal betting on various NBA games about the performance
• 21:10
  Speaker 8: of players on, among other things, the Charlotte Hornets, the
• 21:14
  Speaker 8: Portland Trail Blazers, the Los Angeles Lakers.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: And the Toronto Rangers.
• 21:20
  Speaker 8: Each defendant in the NBA basketball gambling case has been
• 21:24
  Speaker 8: charged with conspiracy to commit wirefraud and conspiracy.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: To commit money laundering.
• 21:32
  Speaker 8: Now, I would like to turn to the other case,
• 21:35
  Speaker 8: United States versus Ilo, the Rigged Poker game case. Beginning
• 21:40
  Speaker 8: as early as twenty nineteen, the defendants in this case
• 21:46
  Speaker 8: orchestrated a scheme to use wireless cheating technology to run
• 21:51
  Speaker 8: rigged poker games across the United States, including in the Hamptons,
• 21:56
  Speaker 8: Las Vegas, Miami, and Manhattan. The scheme targeted victims known
• 22:03
  Speaker 8: as quote phish, who were often lord to participate in
• 22:09
  Speaker 8: these rigged games by the chance to play alongside former
• 22:13
  Speaker 8: professional athletes who were known as quote face cards. The
• 22:19
  Speaker 8: so called face cards included the defendant Chauncey Billips, who
• 22:24
  Speaker 8: at the time of the scheme was a former NBA
• 22:27
  Speaker 8: player and is currently the head coach of the Portland Trailblazers,
• 22:32
  Speaker 8: and also Damon Jones, a former NBA player and coach.
• 22:37
  Speaker 8: What the victims the fish didn't know is that everybody
• 22:42
  Speaker 8: else at the poker game, from the dealer to the players,
• 22:46
  Speaker 8: including the face cards, were in on the scam. Once
• 22:50
  Speaker 8: the game was underway, the defendants fleeced the victims out
• 22:54
  Speaker 8: of tens or hundreds.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: Of thousands of dollars per game.
• 22:59
  Speaker 8: The defendants used a variety of very sophisticated cheating technologies,
• 23:04
  Speaker 8: some of which were provided by other defendants in exchange
• 23:08
  Speaker 8: for a share of the profits from the scheme. For example,
• 23:13
  Speaker 8: they used off the shelf shuffling machines that had been
• 23:17
  Speaker 8: secretly altered in order to read the cards in the deck,
• 23:22
  Speaker 8: predict which player at the table had the best poker hand,
• 23:26
  Speaker 8: and relay that information to an off site operator. The
• 23:32
  Speaker 8: off site operator sent the information via cell phone back
• 23:37
  Speaker 8: to a co conspirator at the table, and that person
• 23:41
  Speaker 8: at the table was known as the quarterback. The quarterback
• 23:46
  Speaker 8: then signaled secretly the information he had received from others
• 23:51
  Speaker 8: to others at the table, and together they used that
• 23:54
  Speaker 8: information in order to win their games and to cheat
• 24:00
  Speaker 8: the victims. Defendants used other cheating technologies such as poker
• 24:06
  Speaker 8: chip tray analyzers, which is a poker chip tray that
• 24:09
  Speaker 8: secretly reads cards using a hidden camera, special contact lenses
• 24:15
  Speaker 8: or eyeglasses that could read pre marked cards, and an
• 24:19
  Speaker 8: X ray table that could read cards face down on
• 24:23
  Speaker 8: the table. What you see depicted on screen right now
• 24:27
  Speaker 8: is an example of the.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: X ray table that reveals the cards.
• 24:32
  Speaker 8: Although they are faced down on the table, they can
• 24:35
  Speaker 8: be read because of the X ray technology. The mafia,
• 24:40
  Speaker 8: specifically members and associates of the Banano, Gambino and Genovi's
• 24:45
  Speaker 8: organized crime families, had pre existing control over non rigged
• 24:50
  Speaker 8: illegal poker games around New York City. As a result,
• 24:55
  Speaker 8: they also became involved in the rigged poker games, helping
• 24:59
  Speaker 8: to organize games and taking a cut of the proceedings
• 25:02
  Speaker 8: and working.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: To enforce the collection of debts.
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: The defendants laundered their proceeds, including through cash exchanges, the
• 25:11
  Speaker 8: use of multiple shell companies, and through cryptocurrency transfers. As
• 25:18
  Speaker 8: part of the scheme, some of the defendants and their
• 25:20
  Speaker 8: co CONSPI conspirators also committed acts of violence, including the
• 25:26
  Speaker 8: gunpoint robbery of a person in order to obtain a
• 25:30
  Speaker 8: rigged shuffling machine, and extortions that were perpetrated against victims
• 25:36
  Speaker 8: in order to ensure that they repaid their gambling debts.
• 25:40
  Speaker 8: Defendants who participated in the rig poker scheme are charged
• 25:43
  Speaker 8: with wirefraud conspiracy. Other defendants have been charged with crimes
• 25:48
  Speaker 8: including illegal gambling, money laundering, hobzac, robbery, and extortions. This
• 25:55
  Speaker 8: case demonstrates our office's unrelenting commitment to the scourge of
• 26:00
  Speaker 8: organized crime in whatever form it takes.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: It is truly incredible when you find out just how
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: corrupt these games were, how many people were involved, they
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: knew exactly what they were doing, and They knew exactly
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: how they were pulling it off, They knew how it
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: was going to take place, and who their targets were.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: That may be the most shocking part of all. Thank goodness,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: the President of the United States of America has said
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: at the FBI, we are going to go after criminals everywhere,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: whether you're trafficking children, drugs, or running illegal gambling rings.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: This was obviously supporting, aiding, and abetting the mafia, and
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons why cash Betel made it
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: clear we're not stopping anytime soon.