Hollywood Hills Murder Exposed Gambling Ring that Embroiled Gilbert Arenas
Posted on: August 6, 2025, 09:06h.
Last updated on: August 6, 2025, 10:31h.
- A Hollywood Hills murder uncovered an elite illegal gambling network
- Gilbert Arenas has been indicted in a federal poker ring crackdown
- High-rollers, mob ties, and murder in LA mansions
In 2023, a man was shot in the face outside a Hollywood Hills mansion during a poker game. The victim, 39-year-old Emil Lahaziel, was found dead on a staircase in the early hours of June 7, 2023, outside a high-end rental on Fareholm Drive.
The shooting looked like an execution, and it was inadvertently witnessed by the actress Chloe Bridges, who, with husband Adam Devine, lives across the street. This terrifying incident would eventually help crack open one of Los Angeles’ most lucrative underground gambling operations.
Now, more than two years after Lahaziel’s murder, federal prosecutors have charged former NBA star Gilbert Arenas and five others in connection with an illegal poker ring that authorities say pulled in high rollers, Israeli organized crime figures, and Latino gang members.
Connecting the Dots
Arenas isn’t suspected of having anything to do with the murder and wasn’t present at the game where it took place.
But it was the investigation into Lahaziel’s killing that prompted LAPD detectives to begin connecting dots between a series of high-stakes poker games hosted in mansions in Encino, Sherman Oaks, and the Hollywood Hills, according to the LA Times report. And they uncovered a sprawling network of illicit card games, some held in homes rented by influencers, staffed by bartenders, chefs, and women offering “companionship.”
Lahaziel was an Israeli national who had only recently moved to Los Angeles from Florida. He had serious debts and suspected ties to criminal networks. According to divorce filings cited by the Times, Lahaziel once told his wife that people were looking to kill him due to things he’d done “out of the country.”
He had filed for bankruptcy in Israel, claiming more than $1.5 million in debt, even as he flaunted a lifestyle of private jets and luxury cars on Instagram.
Two Charged with Murder
Lahaziel spent the last night of his life at a poker game hosted by social media playboy Tony Toutouni, per police testimony. Around 2 am, he stepped outside to meet someone. Moments later, he was dead.
Two gang members, Ricardo Corral and Jose Martinez Sanchez, have since been charged with his murder. Detectives used surveillance footage, phone data, and witness accounts to link the pair to a stolen Dodge truck seen at the scene. Both men have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Israeli Mafia
According to affidavits cited by the Times, Lahaziel had been associating with Yevgeni Gershman, an Israeli immigrant and convicted felon with reputed links to the Israeli Mafia. Gershman, investigators say, was also organizing poker games, including some held at Arenas’ home.
A year before the Lahaziel killing, in July 2022, LAPD and DEA agents raided Arenas’ Encino mansion. They found a game in full swing, with a DEA plane overhead capturing guests fleeing through the backyard.
Those details only came to light last week when prosecutors unsealed a federal indictment charging Arenas, Gershman, and four others with operating an illegal gambling business.
Police targeted the Arenas mansion because a gambler who had lost $1.2 million in one night at one of the games told them he had been threatened by Israeli mobsters, and he named Gershman as the man running the operation out of Arenas’ home.
Additionally, a law enforcement source told NBC Los Angeles on Thursday that several of the five defendants – though not Arenas – had ties to an illegal poker room in a downtown high-rise where missing LA woman Heidi Planck was last seen in 2021.
Arenas has pleaded not guilty to the illegal gambling charges and was released on a $50K bond. A trial is scheduled for September 2025.
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