He felt it was finally time to fold em.’
A professional poker player pleaded guilty Thursday to running an international sports-betting operation out of his Trump Tower condo that catered to high rollers in Russia, the Ukraine and America — making him the latest to ‘fess up to being part of a larger $100 million gambling ring that also served A-list celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Alex Rodriguez.
Vadim Trincher, 53, copped a plea in Manhattan federal court to running his high stakes sports-betting operation and a money laundering business to support the gambling operation out of his posh 63rd floor pad. Much of the overseas gambling involved pro soccer games, sources said.
Under his plea deal with the feds, he faces 21 to 27 months in prison and is expected to forfeit 13 properties in the United States worth millions of dollars.
“As a member of an enterprise, I agreed to conduct this business [from 2006 to earlier this year] and receive sports bets in New York City,” Trincher told Judge Jesse Furman with assistance from a Russian-speaking interpreter.
Trincher was busted by the feds in May, along with his grown sons, Eugene and Illya. Eugene Trincher, 27, on Thursday also copped a plea before Furman.
He pleaded guilty to running illegal high-stakes poker games in Midtown last summer, and faces 6 to 12 months behind bars when he and his father are sentenced in March.
When asked afterwards if Yankees star Alex Rodriguez played at any of his poker games, the younger Trincher stood stone-faced and said nothing.
The Trinchers are copping pleas only days after wealthy Manhattan art dealer and notorious playboy Hillel “Helly” Nahmad pleaded guilty to also being a major player in the international gambling ring.
Nahmad, 35, the scion of a powerful art family worth $3 billion, copped his plea to a federal gambling charges after the government agreed to drop racketeering, money laundering and fraud charges he was also facing.
Nahmad and Illya Trincher ran a high-stakes illegal gambling business that catered primarily to millionaire and billionaire clients, the feds say. Their business relied on several online illegal gambling websites to generate tens of millions of dollars of sports bets since 2012.
The feds in May indicted a total of 34 people for being part of the scheme, including reputed Russian mobsters and notorious Hollywood “poker madam” Molly Bloom. Bloom, the gorgeous sister of Olympic skier Jeremy Bloom, is known for hosting under-the-radar games for celebrity poker players such as DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire.
Half of the 34 people indicted have now pleaded guilty.
The feds say the ring was led by legendary Russian gangster Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, who helmed the operation from overseas. Already wanted for trying to fix skating competitions at the 2002 Olympics, he has eluded capture for years despite extradition attempts.