Federal investigators claim high-stakes poker pro Gal Yifrach‘s alleged illegal gambling operation continued for more than a year after being indicted in March 2022.
A grand jury filed a superseding indictment against the 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner on Jan. 16, 2025 in the United States District Court Eastern District of California. The court document reviewed by PokerNews doesn’t have many noticeable changes from the initial indictment, other than two key differences.
Poker Player Faces Stiff Penalties
Yifrach, a longtime Southern California poker player, is charged with two felonies — conducting an illegal gambling business and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He faces up to a combined 25 years in prison, $750,000 in fines, and three years of supervised release, if convicted.
The high-stakes gambler allegedly conducted an illegal gambling business involving “supplying, operating, and maintaining video slot machines and devices.”
The money laundering accusation part of the indictment involves allegedly taking the cash from the illegal casino and exchanging it for clean money. As stated in the indictment, he then used those funds to invest in real estate and make other purchases.
Authorities claim Yifrach laundered money in a few different ways. One was to exchange the alleged illegal gambling revenue for casino chips at a “casino in Bell Gardens, California,” referred to in the document as “Casino 1.” He would then, federal investigators say, take those casino chips to the casino and exchange them for checks, which he would deposit into his bank account.
What’s the Difference?
The original indictment stated that Yifrach and his co-defendants, “beginning no later than or about January 2018, and continuously thereafter through in or about January 2022, in the State and Eastern District of California, did conduct, manage, supervise, and direct all or part of an illegal gambling business, to wit, a gambling business supplying, operating, and maintaining video slot machines and devices and involving receiving, holding, and forwarding money to be staked, pledged, bet, and wagered upon the result of a contest and contingent event.”
There’s one major difference in the recently filed superseding indictment from the text above, and that is the alleged criminal activity ran “continuously thereafter through in or about July 2023.” That’s key because the original indictment was filed in March 2022, meaning investigators now believe the alleged illegal gambling operation continued for 16 months after charges were filed.
A superseding indictment is a document that replaces and amends the original indictment. This can happen in a federal case where additional charges are filed or additional evidence has been discovered.
The three-year case against Yifrach and his co-defendants already included over 140,000 pages of evidence against the accused criminals.
The second major difference between the initial and superseding indictment is that some of the defendants mentioned has changed. Schneur Zalman Getzel Rosenfeld pleaded guilty last summer. Yifrach is the only defendant out of four who is facing both felony counts.
Two new co-defendants — Jesus Cisneros-Sanchez and Phuoc Tran — have a warrant out for their arrest and must face a judge who will determine bail. Yifrach is said to have exchanged $200,500 worth of casino checks and turned that into paper checks as part of the alleged money laundering operation in November 2018. The indictment lists numerous similar allegations that investigators claim took place over a five-year period.
Yifrach and co-defendant Shalom Ifrah, according to the indictment, “used, caused to be used, and agreed to use multiple methods to exchange cash proceeds of the illegal gambling business for other items of value to conceal the fact that their income was derived from operating an illegal gambling business.”
The high-stakes poker player has been and remains out on bail.
Yifrach has $2.4 million in live tournament cashes, according to The Hendon Mob. He competed multiple times on Live at the Bike and Hustler Casino Live.
