Instead of making a drama that is compelling Showtime series Ray Donovan producer Bryan Zuriff is starring in his very own crime series, this indicates, plus it’s not having an extremely pleased closing for the difficult Hollywood mogul. Zuriff has entered a guilty plea with the Southern District Court of New York the Department of Justice arm that indicted Zuriff, along with 33 others, back in April of in 2010 for a high-profile Russian mob-spearheaded, arranged crime online sportsbetting and high-stakes poker syndicate ring. The plea was for Zuriff’s indictment on felony gambling charges and had been received by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara last week.

Plea Deal and Forfeiture

Specifically, Zuriff’s fees include running an unlawful sports gambling business, transmission of sports wagering information across state lines, and acceptance of monetary instruments for unlawful Web gambling; he has just pled guilty, as of now, to the last charge, and could receive up to five years within the joint for their role in the international gambling scandal. Moreover, the producer will also have to forfeit half a million dollars to fulfill the regards to his plea deal with all the Feds. 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 will be a holiday that is really fun for Zuriff in 2010. Maybe he should eat his turkey early; we hear the stuff they serve in prison isn’t served by Martha Stewart (anymore).

Zuriff ended up being apparently as busy being truly 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 due to the fact final conviction in what the attorney has termed ‘this sprawling script of criminal conduct.’ Maybe Zuriff can write some scripts that are new be shopped while in their cell; he need plenty of time on his fingers.

Bestseller in the Making

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

The entire operation laundered some $100 million in unlawful gambling profits, based on federal prosecutors, using hundreds of small bank accounts in addition to shell organizations created in the U.S. and Cypress. Mark Galeotti, A russian planned crime specialist at New York University, says a sharp uptake in top course wealth in what was previously the Soviet Union has established a whole new underground for experiencing the worldwide and enormous -illegal sportsbetting market, with potentially billions in hidden profits (unless they get busted, as happened here, needless to say.) ‘We’re seeing businessmen that are higher-rolling in these kinds of instances,’ Galeotti noted. The rollers that are high bookies are kept with the issue ‘of racking your brains on exactly what to accomplish with suitcases full of cash, and that leads to the money laundering,’ he added.

Now why a successful Hollywood producer got involved in every one of this, placing his or her own money, reputation and actual life on the line: that’s a good subject for a future crime mystery. Meanwhile, most of the publicity zuriff that is surrounding hasn’t hurt their show; it was just acquired for another period by Showtime with only three shows having aired up to now.