mob

Despite her criminality, Stephanie St Clair liked to be seen as a ‘lady’ and her story is told in a new Sky History series, Original Gangsters, which is narrated by Sean Bean

Roaring Twenties New York was a hotbed of crime, where mobsters like Lucky Luciano ruled the roost – cashing in on prohibition with bootleg booze. Then there was the numbers game … and there was Stephanie St. Clair.

Like a people’s lottery, players of the numbers game – which was illegal – would write a lucky three digit number on slips of paper and runners would run these slips and the bets between the gamblers and their ‘bankers.’

The winning numbers were chosen from the last three digits of the daily trading totals of the New York Stock Exchange which, crucially, made the game impossible to tamper with or fix.

At a time when Black people weren’t even allowed bank accounts, St Clair – a Black woman born in Guadalupe who fled to the US from the French West Indies where she was raised at 13 – wanted a piece of the pie.

READ MORE: ‘Al Capone was a mobster but not a monster’ insists great grand niece of mafia boss

Anyone with the cash to pay winners, or the front to chance their arm until they built up a big enough pot, could be a numbers banker. And it was a way for Black people to enter the banking system. In 1922, St Clair – until then a cleaner – managed to accumulate $30K and launched her own numbers operation – stepping out of the boundaries of both her sex and her race.

Interestingly, she also used other people – particularly men – to keep her hands clean while masterminding the racket. One such enforcer was Bumpy Johnson, who became known as the Godfather of Harlem where they were based. Bumpy would punish people with beatings – or by taking lives.

Featured in a new Sky History series, Original Gangsters, which starts on Tuesday and is narrated by Sean Bean, despite her criminality, St Clair liked to be seen as a ‘lady.’ Sean Bean says:”Although very few photos of her survived, we can see that that image was incredibly important to Stephanie. She never allowed herself to be photographed without her hair, her makeup, her clothes all perfectly styled.”

Alongside being a ruthless gangster, St Clair was a committed activist for the Black community. And when she was arrested, she testified about the participation of the NYPD in vice rackets – leading to more than a dozen police officers being suspended from the force. But when another formidable gangster, Dutch Shultz, tried to muscle in on her numbers, her resistance led to Harlem becoming a warzone – with him using bombings, beatings and murders to muscle in on her turf.

When Shultz was eventually gunned down by a group known as Murder IN, she sent him a message on his death bed saying, ‘As you sew, so shall you reap.’ The same could be said of her, when she is jailed in the 1930s after gunning down her ex and being imprisoned for two to 10 years. Released in the early 1940s, little is known of her after that.

But Serena Simmons says of the little known crime boss, who died in 1969 aged around 72: “She was an outlier. She was someone who may have been able to go down a different path – a good path – if circumstances had been different. She was a very strong character. Underneath it all she was thoughtful, sensitive and a deep thinker. She was intelligent, self educated and widely read. Her clothes were her costume – she needed to be taken seriously – and she was functioning in a man’s world.

“Don’t get me wrong, she did do bad things, but she had a strong moral code; she was aware of injustice because she herself had experienced so much. I think her intention was bizarrely a good one. She had to be self-serving to help others. She had a lot of trauma when she was younger – so this is someone for me who was in survival mode and psychologically could compartmentalise her actions.

“She was motivated to achieve something and constructed her own path outside of any institutional support. I’m not sure we have any understanding about how hard that would have been. Is there a little bit of me that admires her? Yes, there is.”

Original Gangsters starts on Tuesday 4th November at 9pm on Sky History and History Play. The series will also be available to stream on NOW.

Oct. 29 (UPI) — Two U.S. attorneys in Washington, D.C., have been suspended after turning in a sentencing memo that described the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as carried out by “thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters,” sources said.

The prosecutors were assistant U.S. attorneys Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White, who were prosecuting a case against Taylor Taranto. Taranto was pardoned by President Donald Trump for his part in the Jan. 6 riots. He was arrested for unrelated threats and firearms charges, and the description of the capitol insurrection was part of a sentencing memo for that case, according to anonymous sources reported by ABC News, Politico and The Washington Post. Taranto is scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

White and Valdivia were locked out of their government-issued devices Wednesday and told they will be placed on leave. It happened just hours after they filed the memo, sources told ABC.

The memo asked U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols to sentence Taranto to 27 months in prison for a hoax threat against the National Institute of Standards and Technology and for driving through President Barack Obama‘s neighborhood with a van full of guns and ammunition.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who leads the Washington, D.C., office prosecuting Taranto, declined to comment.

But Pirro released a statement on the case.

“While we don’t comment on personnel decisions, we want to make very clear that we take violence and threats of violence against law enforcement, current or former government officials extremely seriously,” Politico reported Pirro said in a statement. “We have and will continue to vigorously pursue justice against those who commit or threaten violence without regard to the political party of the offender or the target.”

It wasn’t clear whether the two prosecutors were told why they were put on leave or if the suspensions would change Taranto’s sentencing date.

In the memo, White and Valdivia said the following about Jan. 6:

“On January 6, 2021, thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol while a joint session of Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. Taranto was accused of participating in the riot in Washington, D.C., by entering the U.S. Capitol Building. After the riot, Taranto returned to his home in the State of Washington, where he promoted conspiracy theories about the events of January 6, 2021.”

Poker chip trays that can secretly read cards.

Glasses that can detect card markings.

Rigged underground games run by the New York mafia.

NBA figures exchanging insider information as part of illegal betting schemes.

These are some of the wild allegations filed in two criminal complaints this week by federal prosecutors in one of the most sweeping and sensational betting scandals in recent professional sports history.

At the heart of one of the cases, prosecutors charged several figures using private insider NBA information, such as when players would sit out, to help others profit in leveraged bets online.

But the allegations go far deeper, including a connection to the Lakers, the mob and more.

Here are four key allegations:

1. High-roller games with high-tech cheating

Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, who played with the Clippers for two seasons and later was a member of Clippers coach Ty Lue’s staff before earning the Trail Blazers head coaching job, is charged with rigging underground poker games that three of New York’s Mafia families backed, authorities said.

Billups and Damon Jones, a retired NBA player, according to one of the two indictments revealed Thursday, were used to attract wealthy players to the games and were referred to as “Face Cards.” But according to the federal indictment, the two were part of the cheating teams. In exchange for taking part in the games, the “Face Cards” received part of the winnings.

The teams, according to court filings, used rigged shuffling machines that read deck cards and predicted which player on the table would have the best poker hand and relayed that information to someone, referred to as the operator. That person then relayed that information to one member of the cheating team on the table, known as the “Quarterback,” or “Driver,” according to court filings.

In some cases, the cheating teams used poker chip trays that could secretly read the cards on the table. In other cases, players used glasses that could detect special markings on the cards.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella of Brooklyn said at a press conference said the defendants used “special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read pre-marked cards” and tables that “could read cards face down on the table … because of the X-ray technology.”

He cited “other cheating technologies, such as poker chip tray analyzers, which is a poker chip tray that secretly reads cards using a hidden camera,.”

“Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows he is a man of integrity; men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others,” Chris Heywood, Billups’ attorney, said in a statement Tuesday night. “To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his Hall-of-Fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game.”

2. Alleged mob ties

The games in the New York area were backed by three of New York’s organized crime families: the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese Mafia families, authorities said. According to the complaint, at least a dozen of the 31 defendants were associates or members of those three families.

Among those named in the indictment was Joseph Lanni, identified as a captain in the Gambino crime family. Known as “Joe Brooklyn,” Lanni was also named as a defendant in a 2023 racketeering, extortion and witness retaliation indictment, where members and associates of the Gambino family were accused of trying to take control of New York’s carting and demolition industries.

Last week, Lanni pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, according to court records.

3. A tip about LeBron James

Federal prosecutors allege that between December 2022 and March 2024, the defendants , used inside information to defraud bettors, including which players would be sitting out games and when players would “pull themselves out of games early for purported injuries or illnesses.”

Damon Jones, a retired NBA player and friend of LeBron James is accused of inside information for sports betting related to the Lakers and specifically “Player 3,” a prominent NBA player.

Although the indictment does not name the player — the date referenced in 2023 when the player sat out matches when James sat out against the Milwaukee Bucks due to ankle soreness. According to the indictment, Jones, a friend of James, profited from the non-public information.

“Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out!” Jones texted an unnamed co-conspirator, according to the indictment. “[Player 3] is out tonight.”

On Thursday, the Lakers declined to comment on the investigation. A person close to LeBron James told The Times that the Lakers star didn’t know that Jones was allegedly selling injury information to gamblers placing bets. Neither James or the Lakers have been accused of any wrongdoing.

3. A ‘shady’ injury

According to the indictment, when Terry Rozier was playing for the Hornets, he told others he was planning to leave the game early with a “supposed injury,” allowing others to place wagers that raked in thousands of dollars, New York Police Commissioner Jennifer Tisch said.

Rozier and other defendants allegedly provided that information to other co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of betting profits.

Another game involving Rozier that has been in question was played a day earlier, on March 23, 2023, between the Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans. Rozier played the first 9 minutes and 36 seconds of that game — and not only did not return that night, citing a foot issue, but also did not play again that season.

Posts still online from March 23, 2023, show that some bettors were furious with sportsbooks that evening when it became evident that Rozier was not going to return, with many turning to social media to say that something “shady” had gone on regarding the prop bets involving his stats for that night.

In December 2021, Eric Benjamin Halem was riding high.

Beyond his day job as an LAPD officer, he was juggling several lucrative side hustles, business records and court filings show.

Private security. An app for aspiring actors trying to land auditions. And an exotic car rental company, Drive-LA, that was gaining a following among rappers, influencers and executives.

But Halem’s comfortable life soon began to unravel. He left his full-time position with the LAPD after coming under internal investigation, according to records submitted as part of a lawsuit. Earlier this year, state authorities charged him with insurance fraud.

Then, a few weeks ago, L.A. County prosecutors accused him of masterminding a home invasion robbery with a man with reputed ties to the Israeli underworld — part of what authorities say is a growing trend of criminals targeting victims for their cryptocurrency profits.

How Halem, 37, became embroiled with one of his alleged co-conspirators, Gaby (sometimes spelled “Gabby”) Ben, remains a mystery.

Ben, who has twice been convicted of fraud, was a close business associate of Moshe Matsri, or “Moshe the Religious,” whom authorities describe as an L.A. leader of the Israeli underground who had long operated in the San Fernando Valley and had ties to the Abergil crime syndicate, according to court filings.

In the early morning hours of Dec. 28, 2024, Halem, Ben and Mishael Mann, 20, made their way into an apartment building in Koreatown, LAPD Robbery-Homicide Det. Guillermo De La Riva wrote in a sworn declaration in favor of denying Halem’s bail.

Pierre Louis, 26, had arranged to meet up with the victim for a “digital currency transaction,” which was a ruse to allow the three other men to enter the building and wait for the victim to return, De La Riva wrote.

The men handcuffed the victim and a second person, De La Riva wrote, ordering them at gunpoint to transfer money from a cryptocurrency account and fleeing with $300,000 worth of cryptocurrency, cash and jewelry.

De La Riva said he believed that after Halem’s arrest, other alleged victims might come forward.

When LAPD detectives arrested Halem earlier this month, they obtained search warrants for the $2.1-million home he had recently moved into in Porter Ranch, a scenic neighborhood in the Santa Susana foothills. They also reportedly recovered at least one of his guns from the home of his former police partner.

Halem, who went by Ben professionally, has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and robbery and remains in Men’s Central Jail after a judge denied his application for bail. His attorney, George G. Mgdesyan, declined to comment, saying he hadn’t yet reviewed the evidence against his client.

Halem has also pleaded not guilty in the state insurance fraud case. Ben, 51, is jailed on a federal immigration hold in Florida.

Louis, Mann and another defendant, Luis Banuelos, have pleaded not guilty to felony charges. Their attorneys declined to comment.

As LAPD detectives investigated the kidnapping and robbery, they took a closer look at Halem’s side businesses, according to two department sources — including whether his startup funding came from organized crime and whether his companies were a front for money laundering. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

In recent years, business was taking off at Drive-LA, which boasted a fleet of rare luxury vehicles for rent, including a 2020 Bentley Continental GT and a Lamborghini Urus, and had nearly 60,000 Instagram followers. With glowing media coverage and venture capitalists opening their checkbooks, Halem planned to open a second location in Phoenix.

He was co-hosting a podcast for car enthusiasts, and former associates told The Times that a reality show based on his life was in the works. On social media, he cultivated the image of a carefree young entrepreneur, with photos of himself posing on the steps of a private jet, at a Formula 1 race and courtside with NBA superstars Dwight Howard and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Halem launched an app called kaypr in 2017 that matched aspiring actors “to available roles,” allowing them to audition remotely from anywhere in the world. For a security firm where he had a leadership role, he worked “music festivals, celebrity details, and large-scale events.” Among his clients was action film producer Randall Emmett, who has faced fraud claims and allegations of abuse toward women. Emmett has denied the allegations.

In a blog post, Halem described himself as a thrill seeker who has always chased “speed, precision, and a little bit of calculated chaos.”

According to an online biography, Halem grew up in Los Angeles and attended UC Riverside before joining the LAPD. He spent nearly half his 13 years on the force as a training officer and was qualified as a sharpshooter.

His last assignment was at West Valley Division, which patrols areas featured in crimes involving suspects with ties to Israeli organized crime, including the wealthy enclave of Encino. Several former colleagues who spoke with The Times described Halem as a solid if unremarkable officer.

In 2014, Halem was injured during an encounter with a suspect in the West Valley area who had holed up inside an apartment and pelted officers with objects. An LAPD review board found that Halem’s decision to fire a beanbag shotgun at the suspect was in line with department policy.

By the time he left the LAPD in 2022, Halem was pulling in $188,500 in salary and benefits, according to the Transparent California database.

And his other businesses were apparently far more lucrative than his day job. In an interview with Internal Affairs detectives investigating him for insurance fraud, Halem boasted that he was raking in more than $1 million in profit annually from Drive-LA, according to a department source who reviewed the Internal Affairs file and was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Halem was also targeted by numerous lawsuits, one of which cited a WhatsApp conversation in which an LAPD sergeant said that Halem’s “business smells dirty” and suggested that there were other LAPD officers who were “involved in his business dealings.”

“[If] there is any misconduct on their part they will be held accountable,” the sergeant wrote in the WhatsApp exchange, referring to the other officers.

It’s not clear whether the LAPD investigated whether other officers were involved. The department did eventually clear Halem of the insurance fraud allegations. But his alleged misdeeds had come to the attention of the state Department of Insurance, which charged both him and his brother, Jacob Halem, with misrepresenting details in a roughly $200,000 insurance claim related to a Bentley crash in January 2023. The case is pending.

After leaving his full-time LAPD job, Halem worked as an unpaid reserve officer. In March, he was stripped of his police powers after he was charged in the insurance fraud case.

Ben, who moved to the San Fernando Valley from Israel as a young adult, worked in real estate and was a partner at his late mother’s restaurant.

Federal prosecutors described him as a flashy high roller with an affinity for high-end watches. His Israeli mafia connections allowed him to launder money through Jewish-owned businesses across the Valley, prosecutors alleged in documents filed in the case.

Ben was deported after each of his fraud convictions, federal court records show. In one of the cases, prosecutors alleged that he orchestrated a so-called bust-out scheme, recruiting people to open bank accounts on his behalf in exchange for a small fee.

He and his brother, Amin Ben, were also accused of defrauding senior citizens by entering their homes disguised as HVAC repairmen and then photographing their driver’s licenses and bank statements.

Based on wiretaps described in a federal sworn affidavit, federal investigators believed the brothers could move freely in and out of the country, despite their legal troubles, because of Amin Ben’s connection to an official at the Israeli Consulate who was “able to facilitate and issue travel documents.” Prosecutors also alleged that the brothers were captured on a recording threatening to kill the Israel-based family of an LAPD detective investigating one of the federal cases.

The check-cashing business that Ben ran with Matsri, the alleged Israeli crime boss, in an Encino strip mall was a front for alleged fraud schemes, according to a declaration filed in court by an LAPD Major Crimes detective.

Investigators determined that the pair bought more than 230 airline tickets, worth more than $600,000, using phone credit card approval codes and then resold the tickets to local Israelis at discount rates, an FBI agent wrote in a sworn affidavit.

When they arrested Ben and Matsri in October 2010, authorities seized 16 high-end watches and a handgun from Ben’s home.

In 2015, Matsri was sentenced in a separate federal case to 32 years in prison for drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion.

Land records show that Ben was living in a glitzy mansion in the Hollywood Hills, where neighbors said they often saw him driving a black Rolls-Royce. The mansion’s owner sued him after he stopped paying rent for five months, eventually racking up a $150,000 tab, court records show.

Ben continued to live at the residence until moving out in March.