Suspects Connected to Illegal Betting Scandal in Arenas Also Implied in Unresolved Los Angeles Disappearance Case and Building Involved
August 1, 2025, 11:00h
A federal investigation has uncovered a connection between the 2021 disappearance of Heidi Planck, a West Los Angeles mother, and an illegal poker ring operated by former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas.
Heidi Planck vanished on October 17, 2021, after leaving her son's football game. Her last known location was a high-rise building at 12th and Hope in downtown LA, where an illegal poker room was housed.
The investigation, which began in 2021, led federal detectives to a search of a property in Sherman Oaks linked to the poker ring in 2022. The persistence of these investigations suggests connections between the financial scandal surrounding the poker ring and Planck's disappearance.
Gilbert Arenas was indicted on August 1, 2025, for his involvement in running high-stakes poker games at his Encino, Calif. mansion. He is not the only one facing charges, as Yevgeni Gershman, Evgenni Tourevski, Allan Austria, Yarin Cohen, Ievgen Krachun, and Jason Sugarman, Heidi Planck's former boss at Camden Capital Partners, are fellow defendants. Each has been charged with one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business and one count of operating an illegal gambling business.
In 2023, Sugarman was ordered by a court to pay $10.2 million for his role in a scheme involving fraudulent bond investment. However, there is no evidence or public allegation implicating him in Planck's disappearance.
The information about the defendants' ties to the illegal poker room was leaked to NBC Los Angeles on Thursday. It's unclear why law enforcement chose to leak this information, but it could be an attempt to reignite public interest in the Heidi Planck cold case.
In late 2021, LAPD conducted a massive landfill search based on forensic evidence from that building, but Planck's body was never recovered. She was legally declared deceased in 2023.
Law enforcement sources believe several people who were at the downtown apartment building on the day Planck disappeared knew what happened to her but have refused to cooperate.
The ongoing investigations into the illegal poker ring and Heidi Planck's disappearance are intertwined, with many of the defendants having ties to the buildings and operations associated with both cases. The connections between the financial scandal, criminal activities, and Planck's disappearance are central to the related scandal and ongoing investigations.
- The connection between Heidi Planck's 2021 disappearance and the underground gambling ring operated by Gilbert Arenas in Los Angeles has been a focus of the General News and Crime & Justice sections.
- Investigations surrounding the 2021 disappearance of Heidi Planck and the Los Angeles gambling case have revealed that an illegal poker room was housed in the building where she was last seen.
- The illegal poker room, being a key element in the Los Angeles gambling case, appears to have connections with Heidi Planck's disappearance, as several defendants involved in the ring have ties to the buildings and operations associated with both cases.
- As the federal investigation into the underground gambling ring proceeds, it raises questions about Heidi Planck's disappearance and the possible role of people who were at the downtown apartment building on the day she vanished.
