Was watching CNBC this morning and they featured a story on Lazaro Hernandez. Pretty sophisticated scam he was running.

Hernandez, also known as “the Godfather” or “Fat Laz,” was named in court documents as the “Kingpin defendant” in a sprawling drug counterfeiting ring that included more than 100 individuals and companies.

The casino filed numerous suspicious activity reports (SARs) on Hernandez, which noted he often wandered into the casino with extremely large amounts of cash inside plastic bags. He also provided casino staff with explanations of where the money came from that were verifiably false, according to court documents.

Prosecutors concluded that he was gambling with the profits of the drug ring and was using the casino to launder money.

https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/pla...p?a=r&n=259726

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2023/12/1...fights-it.html

Looks like he was sentenced to 15 years
https://www.justice.gov/criminal/cri...zaro-hernandez

https://www.casino.org/news/casino-h...iv-drugs-scam/

Maybe I should've posted in thread of Interesting Professions you've come across at the poker table.

I don't know how american casinos operate but it should not be possible to launder money as a casino guest.

In sweden you get all winnings from casino in cash, and with no receipt. So no laundering possible. The only time you will get an actual bank transaction is if you withdrew $xxx through your account to play with, and then you will only get exactly $xxx transferred back and any overshooting (won) amounts you get in cash. Only exception is "verifiable wins", which means you binked a slot machine which they know you haven't fed much money into already, or winning a poker tournament. Those can be tranferred to your account.

Some fake drug dealer used casinos to launder money.


Why is this relevant to poker?

Why is this NVG threadworthy?

Yes heaven forbid that this forum which is rattling in it's death throes have some only mildly relevant content posted.

Lazaro would show-up in some high stakes events. Knew I recognized when I saw his picture and name on CNBC. Thought other players in NVG might know him or more about the story..

Here is a link to Lazaro Hendon Mob...

https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/pla...p?a=r&n=259726

well we're not in Sweeden.

Yeah. But it is funny that if they were really concerned about money laundering and whatever they could solve the problem by just getting rid of all the kyc and taxables and chit. (I guess).

This site is partially in its death throes because of posts like this. Coming to NVG is depressing af sometimes. There's nothing wrong with this post and it's relevant news, but it's just another in a long streak of negative press for gambling in general. NVG is down so bad that limon making a post had people like "yes! 2+2 is back".

NVG has been "poker is dead", "scam alert", "HCL scandal", "Mason/Sklansky say something vaguely foolish and then insist they're right for 6 pages" for quite some time. We need some prop bets and goofy threads to spread those things out. I love a trashy thread as much as the next guy but when they're my only choice, it's like should I be visiting this site?

here is a haiku

sitting here today,
writing a post to limon,
where did I go wrong.

So actually Swedish casinos are perfect for laundering cash as you can explain away cash deposits as being casino winnings.

How does money laundering in a casino typically work?

Yea sure right up until that thing where they tell you to go take a hike and won't accept the money (or even closes your account) since you have no way of proving to them that it really is casino winnings.

you have income you cant claim as legal income but you want to use legal income to buy a house

you go to the casino and say that the illegal cash you have are casino winnings. Every month you say you win like $9k.

you say you win $100k the first year. You pay $30k in taxes and now you have $70k you can legally spend on the house.

thats how it works

You the FBI?

I remember him playing on Poker Go cash games, he sure played like a guy who may or may not have been getting millions illegally/easily.

Oh, that and he looked like an old Jesse Pinkman

It's depressing because the people doing interesting or funny stuff in poker nowadays don't have to come here to post it to get an audience for it. They put it on their insta or twitter or twitch or youtube, or more likely, just keep it between them and their friends.

I remember him making a massive punt in some streamed high stakes cash game, story checks out.

if posting to limon is wrong, you dont want to be right.

live footage of Tuma making this post

No receipt is necessary. This is confirmed since you don’t get a receipt in US either.

Well that is a bank action. Has nothing to do with lack of casino receipt as there are other ways to make cash the bank will also reject.

OK then it sounds like one can't launder money via casino play in the USA either then, cool. Although I have zero idea what the last sentence you wrote means, it's gibberish to me.

This post very clearly explains how one would launder money in a casino. Maybe some sort of language barrier going on here? With dollop of self righteousness thrown in for good measure.

I don't see what good the casino did for this method though. At what point does interacting with the casino make this viable?

You have cash. You go to the casino. You leave the casino with cash. Nothing happened. What practical role in the laundring process did the casino fill?

You buy chips with cash in small amounts, then cash out big amounts. You keep track just like all tax-paying gamblers would, and then file a return at the end of the year claiming all of your winnings and paying taxes on it. That money can now be safely entered into the US financial system for any legitimate purpose.