In place of making a drama that is compelling Showtime series Ray Donovan producer Bryan Zuriff is starring in their very own crime series, it appears, also it’s not having a very pleased closing for the difficult Hollywood mogul. Zuriff has entered a plea that is guilty the Southern District Court of New York the Department of Justice arm that indicted Zuriff, along side 33 others, back in April of in 2010 for a high-profile Russian mob-spearheaded, arranged crime Web sportsbetting and high-stakes poker syndicate ring. The plea was for Zuriff’s indictment on felony gambling charges and ended up being received by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara a week ago.

Plea Deal and Forfeiture

Specifically, Zuriff’s costs include operating an illegal sports gambling business, transmission of recreations wagering information across state lines, and acceptance of monetary instruments for unlawful Web gambling; he has only pled guilty, as of now, to your last charge, and may receive as much as five years in the joint for their role in the gambling scandal that is international. Moreover, the producer may also have to forfeit half of a million dollars to meet the terms of the feds to his plea deal. He now awaits sentencing on Nov. 25 three days before Thanksgiving and two prior to the start of (very early) Hanukkah this year so it should be considered a holiday that is really fun for Zuriff this season. Maybe he should early eat his turkey; we hear the stuff they provide in prison isn’t served by Martha Stewart (anymore).

Zuriff had been apparently as busy being fully a high-end bookie as he had been running illegal sportsbetting operations from both LaLa Land in Hollywood, as well as helping run the show back in the Big Apple, under the watch of art dealer Hillel Nahmad and other Russian big-time players as he was working on sets; Bharara’s statements regarding the plea deal said that the producer ‘spanned the coasts with his crimes. Zuriff’s plea deal wraps up Bharara’s work on this case because the final conviction in what the attorney has termed ‘this sprawling script of unlawful conduct.’ Maybe Zuriff can write some new scripts to be shopped while in his cell; he needs lots of time on their hands.

Bestseller in the Making

With Hollywood never shy about making money off a scandal not even though a unique members are involved (human being or areas of the body), word is that another person that is high-profile of who was part of this group is already writing her very own book about any of it. ‘Poker madam’ Molly Bloom also indicted by the DoJ earlier this year is said to be bandying about lots of big movie star names in her tome, perhaps including Spiderman actor Tobey Maguire, whom apparently had been a poker game regular in these A-list Tinseltown home games.

The operation that is entire some $100 million in unlawful gambling earnings, according to federal prosecutors, using hundreds of little bank accounts as well as shell organizations produced in the U.S. and Cypress. Mark Galeotti, A russian organized crime specialist at brand New York University, says a sharp uptake in top class wide range in what was previously the Soviet Union has established a whole new underground for tapping into the worldwide and enormous -illegal sportsbetting market, with potentially billions in hidden profits (unless they have busted, as happened here, of course.) ‘We’re seeing higher-rolling entrepreneurs involved in this type of cases,’ Galeotti noted. The rollers that are high bookies are kept with the problem ‘of racking your brains on exactly what to accomplish with suitcases full of cash, and that leads to the cash laundering,’ he added.

Now why a successful Hollywood producer got involved in each of this, placing their own money, reputation and actual life on the line: that’s a good topic for a crime mystery that is future. Meanwhile, all of the publicity surrounding Zuriff apparently hasn’t hurt his show; it was just acquired for another period by Showtime with only three shows having aired thus far.