DA's website now has the press release posted:
https://app.dao.hctx.net/poker-clubs...g-joint-effort
Full text...
HARRIS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY
KIM K. OGG
May 1, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact:
mediarequest@dao.hctx.net
Poker clubs raided; nine owner-operators charged with money laundering in joint effort
Nine people were charged Wednesday with money laundering as part of an engaging in organized crime investigation by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office and the Houston Police Department.
The agencies raided two poker establishments, the Post Oak Poker Club and the Prime Social Poker Club.
In addition to arresting those who own or operate the establishments, the clubs’ bank accounts, through which millions of dollars have flowed, were frozen and face being seized.
“Poker rooms are illegal in the State of Texas,” District Attorney Kim Ogg said. “We are changing the paradigm regarding illegal gambling by moving up the criminal chain and pursuing felony money laundering and engaging in organized crime charges against owners and operators. Players are not being targeted.”
The charges – first-degree felonies - are the result of a two-year investigation by the District Attorney’s Office’s Money Laundering Division and the Houston Police Department’s Vice Division.
“We can’t allow illegal gambling to go on,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said. “It drives organized crime and fuels other criminal activity.
Houston Police and the District Attorney’s Office wrapped up an investigation last year that resulted in the arrest of nearly three dozen people, including three police officers and key gambling figures in Chinatown and elsewhere.
The persons charged and locations raided Wednesday include:
Post Oak Poker Club, 1001 West Loop South, Suite 400
Daniel Jeffery Kebort, owner
William Jack Heuer III, owner
Alan Harris Chodrow, owner
Sergio Diaz Cabrera, owner
Kevin Louis Chodrow, owner
Prime Social Poker Room 7801 Westheimer Rd.
Dean Maddox, owner
Mary Switzer, comptroller
Brent J. Pollack, general manager
Steven Farshid, asst. general manager