A prison criticism has been filed towards an Israeli mobster with an in depth rap sheet for allegedly sending textual content messages containing violent threats to a Los Angeles high-stakes poker sport host.
Assaf Waknine, 52, often known as “Assaf Oiknine” and “Ace,” was deported from the U.S. to Israel in 2011 following a decades-long crime spree that included quite a few felony convictions for prices starting from assault with a lethal weapon to forgery. Federal investigators imagine he now resides in Mexico, the place he has communicated with Mexican Mafia and Crips gang members to function initimidation so he may extort cash from the host of a poker sport in Beverly Hills, courtroom paperwork obtained by PokerNews present.
Risks of Personal Poker Video games in Los Angeles
The affidavit, filed Oct. 31 by Particular Agent Matthew Hernandez in the US District Courtroom for the Central District of California, lays out causes for possible trigger as to why Waknine is being charged with transmitting threatening communications in interstate and international commerce. The accused prison just isn’t in custody and his exact whereabouts are unknown.
Waknine is the newest to face federal prices associated to high-stakes non-public poker video games, becoming a member of NBA stars Gilbert Arenas, Chauncey Billups, and members of Israeli and Italian crime syndicates.
The latest prison criticism accuses Waknine of sending threatening WhatsApp messages to the sport host known as Sufferer-1 if he “refuses to pay Waknine to offer safety for Sufferer-1’s high-stakes non-public poker video games.”
Hernandez acknowledged that the threats occurred in January 2024, seven months after the extremely publicized homicide of 39-year-old Israeli citizen Emil Lahaziel outdoors a Los Angeles-area poker sport hosted by Sufferer-1 that straight led federal authorities to alleged unlawful poker video games run by Israeli mobsters on the dwelling of Arenas.
Waknine is alleged to have tried to make use of threatening strategies to take a reduce of the six-figure weekly earnings from a high-stakes non-public sport. Sufferer-1 refused to pay, inflicting Waknine to reference the Lahaziel homicide, textual content messages point out.
“You grasp up me yet another time and than your will f*****g perceive,” a WhatsApp message to Sufferer-1 from a quantity Hernandez believes to be Waknine’s.
Waknine allegedly continued to message the sufferer, earlier than Sufferer-1 responded: “I Don’t Know who you’re and I’m in a gathering.”
“F**okay your assembly,” Waknine wrote.
“Okay [Victim-1] I assume you actually Need to find yourself like your different b***h a** poker buddy.”
“Hear mom f****r,” Waknine mentioned in a single closing message.
Lahaziel and Sufferer-1 had been associates, and based on the prison criticism, Waknine was conscious of the homicide.
NBA Star Gilbert Arenas Arrested for Allegedly Internet hosting Unlawful Poker Video games
Partnering with Gangbangers
Waknine and his multiple-times convicted felon brother, Hai Waknine, “developed connections with people affiliated with the Mexican Mafia in Southern California, in addition to connections with traditionally Black gangs together with the Crips, whom they use as enforcers and collectors for his or her extortion schemes,” Hernandez wrote.
The gang members allegedly served as Waknine’s muscle, making violent bodily threats with the intent for the sufferer to pay cash that is not owed. Sufferer-1 operated a poker sport with buy-ins starting from $20,000 to hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
“A participant may win or lose effectively over 1,000,000 {dollars} in a single night time alone,” the affidavit reads.
Sufferer-1 employed a full workers to create a “party-like environment” for the poker occasions, together with cocktail waitresses, valet, cooks, bartenders, and poker sellers. The sport attracted celebrities, poker execs and leisure gamers, and rich businesspeople, and was well-known throughout the Los Angeles high-stakes poker group.
Sufferer-1, the affidavid reads, employed non-public safety guards “to offer safety providers for the poker occasions.” The aim was to offer the “elite clientele” security and “peace of thoughts” when enjoying in high-stakes poker video games at a residence. Waknine is alleged to have used his violent status as a device to extort cash out of those video games.
Waknine, per Hernandez, sought $5,000 per sport for “safety” charges, a suggestion Sufferer-1 refused. Sufferer-1 by no means paid the felon a dime.
*Picture courtesy of U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ).
