International playboy and art dealer Hillel Nahmad pleaded guilty for his role in a gambling ring with supposed ties to reputed gangsters, and the poor thing blames "his family's high-stakes 'culture'" as reported by the New York Post:
"Since I was young, gambling was part of my family's recreational life," Nahmad said in a memo to the federal court, pleading for leniency at his sentencing scheduled for next week. * * * "Helly watched me gamble, sometimes for high stakes, and it became part of his life, too," Nahmad's father, David, said in a letter to the court. "When he lost, he sometimes turned to me to pay his debts, and I did."
Poor little rich boy.
Federal prosecutors want to throw the sad sack into a prison cell for 12 to 18 months but little Helly thinks community service would be more approriate for him such as teaching art history to homeless kids as reported by DNAinfo.
Nahmad is represented by criminal defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman who previously insisted on his client's innocence as previously reported by Vivian Yee for The New York Times:
Mr. Brafman, who is representing Mr. Nahmad with another lawyer, Paul Shechtman, said in a statement after the hearing, "We do not believe that Mr. Nahmad has knowingly violated the law." He also said, "We anticipate that he will be fully exonerated."
Apparently Mr. Brafman was wrong about that.
Earlier coverage:
Helly Nahmad Pleads Guilty To Gambling Charge
