Last April, the poker world was rocked when 34 people were indicted in connection with a Russian mob-run poker ring. Famed pros such as Justin ‘BoostedJ’ Smith, Abe Mosseri and Bill Edler were served indictments, as was notorious international criminal Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov and poker hostess Molly Bloom.
As if the story of this underground poker ring wasn’t already interesting enough, the New York Daily News is now reporting that mixed martial arts fighters were used to collect debts from players. Federal prosecutors brought this point up when asking the judge to give one of the indicted parties, Kirill Rapoport, at least six months in jail.
Known as a Brooklyn tough guy, Rapoport acted as a collector for the poker ring. On at least one occasion, he sent an associate named Authur Azen and two beefy MMA fighters to scare a poker player into paying up. The prosecutors wrote the following:
On 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’s poker games, who based on earlier interceptions appeared to be delinquent in playing Azen’s debts.
Out 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
The poker player in question owed somewhere in the range of $35,000 to $40,000. So the ring likely thought that they needed to bring in some muscle to put pressure on this guy. However, the use of MMA fighters is one main reason why prosecutors are pushing for Rapaport to do jail time, while many of the other defendants have avoided jail through plea deals. Rapoport’s plea calls for 6-12 months in jail, which is still better than the five years in prison that he was facing.