Man Sentenced to Five Months in Russian Mob-Tied High Stakes Poker Case

NEW YORK (Associated Press) — A federal judge in Manhattan has given prison to another defendant in a massive high-stakes poker games case.

Edwin Ting of New York City was charged in April 2013 along with 33 other alleged members and associates of two Russian-American organized crime enterprises.

Ting was sentenced Tuesday to five months in prison and ordered to forfeit $2 million.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says that from 2010 through 2013, Ting ran poker games with pots that reached hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Authorities say players in the underground network included unidentified professional athletes, Hollywood luminaries and business executives.

Playing poker isn't a crime, but it's illegal to profit by promoting it.

Twenty-five of the defendants have pleaded guilty. They've agreed to forfeit a total of more than $68 million.