Two of the people named in a massive 34-defendant illegal gambling and money laundering indictmentpled guilty last week to their roles in the operation, according to a press release by Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. William Barbalat and Kirill Rapoport face prison time and have been hit with hefty fines, although they are not considered significant players in the ring.

The two men ran high-stakes poker games in New York City, Barbalat from 2010 to 2012 and Rapoport in 2012 and 2013. The U.S. Government has connected these games, among others, to the Russian mob. The charges in the indictment included racketeering, money laundering, illegal gambling, and extortion. Barbalat pled guilty on Wednesday to traveling in interstate commerce in aid of an unlawful activity. Rapoport followed last Friday, pleading guilty to conducting an illegal gambling business.

As a result of their guilty pleas, the two face as many as five years in prison and three years of supervised release. Barbalat was hit with a $150,000 fine, while Rapoport has to fork over $250,000. They will stand before U.S. District Court Judge Jesse Furman in mid-December for sentencing.

“For three years, William Barbalat and Kirill Rapoport oversaw illegal gambling enterprises in the Southern District of New York. With their pleas, we move closer to holding to account all those who participated in this wide-ranging network of criminal conduct linked to organized crime,” Bharara celebrated in the press release.

One other man, film producer Bryan Zuriff (“The Messenger,” “The Details,” “Ray Donovan”), pled guilty to charges in late July.

Several well-known poker figures were named in the indictments, including Vadim Trincher (pictured), Bill Edler, Peter NordbergFeldman, John Hanson, and Abe Mosseri. Trincher, winner of the 2009 WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic, has been fingered as a major player in the gambling ring; his $5 million condo in Trump Tower was allegedly the venue for the biggest high-stakes cash games in New York.

Trincher allegedly laundered as much as $50 million from the games through shell companies and bank accounts in Cyprus to various landing spots in the United States and Russia. Prosecutors have also said that Trincher could be heard on wiretaps threatening gambling debtors with physical violence.

The Government has tied Trincher to Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, who is suspected of being a Russian mobster. Tokhtakhounov is perhaps best known for being accused of bribing figure skating judges in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Vadim Trincher’s son, Ilya Trincher (pictured), who is known as a huge gambler and backer in New York (he also appeared on Season 3 of “High Stakes Poker”), was named in the indictment as being a principal in a separate, related gambling operation dealing with sports betting. It appears that Edler, a WSOP bracelet winner, and Feldman, a two-time WSOP Circuit winner, may have been involved as minor players, placing bets for other people.

Mosseri, another WSOP bracelet winner, has been charged with the same counts as Edler and Feldman (operation of an illegal sports gambling business, transmission of sports gambling information, and acceptance of financial instrument for unlawful internet gambling). Hanson has been hit with all that and then some, including racketeering, extortion, and money laundering.

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