THE FBI whistleblower who helped carry down a worldwide drug cartel is ready handy the person he despatched to jail an opportunity at redemption – within the boxing ring.
Excessive-stakes gambler RJ Cipriani, aka Jackpot, was sucked into the nefarious world of Owen Hanson, the previous USC soccer walk-on who turned a drug lord working a cash laundering and unlawful sports activities playing enterprise price tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
It is a wild, nearly unbelievable, story that concerned the tragic suicide of an affiliate of Hanson’s who was unwittingly dragged into the sorry mess.
Between Hanson being charged in 2015, after being apprehended at a golf course in San Diego, and 2017, there have been 1,000 arrests, with 800 occurring in a single day.
This dramatic interval is the main target of an upcoming Sony scripted sequence, government produced by Cipriani, Nick Stoller, Conor Welch, and Jamie Canniffe.
Hollywood star Mark Wahlberg‘s manufacturing firm can be very excited by producing a docuseries for Amazon.
Hanson was sentenced to 21 years in 2017 and was required to forfeit $5 million to the authorities, which included $100,000 in gold cash, luxurious autos, jewellery, trip properties, a sailboat, and stakes in a number of companies.
Cops additionally discovered six encrypted cell telephones that had been bought from a Canadian firm being investigated for allegedly supplying their expertise to organized crime gangs,
However, after serving simply seven years in a federal jail in Englewood, Colorado, Hanson is a free man.
He’s broke, repented, and determined to rebuild a life that spiraled uncontrolled.
And he is conjured up the wildest of concepts.
“We spoke on the telephone, and he requested if I wished to have a boxing match. That means we might increase cash, which might assist him as a result of he is broke,” Cipriani advised The U.S. Solar.
He is 62 years previous with a torn rotator cuff and a again that wants surgical procedure.
However Cipriani is up for the problem.
“Now, I used to field at a health club in Philly, however injured my shoulder and again in a automobile accident,” he continued.
“I advised him I would like a 12 months perhaps, however I will field. He thinks I am kidding, however I am not. I’ll battle him for cash and provides most of it to charity.”
BOMBSHELL REVELATION
The U.S. Solar can even solely reveal that, in accordance with Cipriani, somebody implicated within the case of Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani‘s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, is alleged to have taken over Hanson’s sports-betting racket when he went to jail seven years in the past.
“The small print will shock the sports activities world,” he mentioned.
School prospect Hanson wanted little encouragement to show from sports activities star to ruthless crime boss.
One which turned so twisted that he desecrated Cipriani’s beloved mom’s grave in Philadelphia in a sick try and threaten the high-stakes gambler.
However when Los Angeles-based Cipriani sat down with The U.S. Solar to debate the main points of his involvement in Hanson’s slide into criminality, remarkably, there was no bitterness or hate.
FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE
Cipriani, who dubbed himself Robin Hood 702 as he routinely gave giant parts of his winnings to charitable causes (702 is the Las Vegas space code), is determined to enhance the world.
“I’m going after dangerous guys,” he advised The U.S. Solar.
“You bought to be held accountable for doing dangerous issues. And if you happen to see someone doing one thing mistaken or horrible and he is your actual good pal, you possibly can’t simply look and stroll away.”
Cipriani has walked in a world most individuals see solely in movies: a rollercoaster existence of excessive stakes, quick money, and harmful criminals.
But, there’s an plain advantage in his endeavors.
“You have to attempt to make them assume they’re doing one thing mistaken,” he continued. “Make them rethink their technique in life, and attempt to get individuals to be variety, mild, good, caring, and loving.”
“As a result of with out it, this world goes to disintegrate with hate and with corruption and with crime.”
DODGY DEALINGS
After faculty, Hanson, nicknamed O-Canine, created a web based sportsbook referred to as Wager-O-Canine. It was the beginning of a journey that might incorporate suicide, violence, and importing tons of cocaine into Australia.
As enterprise boomed, Hanson started to enterprise into actual property, taking Charles D’Agostino, a household man from southern California, alongside for the trip.
D’Agostino, nevertheless, wasn’t conscious of Hanson’s dodgy dealings within the background.
Upon the belief he had unwittingly develop into complicit, he hung himself at his building website in 2017. He was simply 52 years previous.
“It was tragic,” mentioned Cipriani as feelings engulfed him. “I went to the funeral and noticed his spouse and children enter the church. Simply heartbreaking.”
GLOBAL CHAOS
Cipriani first met Hanson, who went from a good finish in school to supplying his teammates with steroids and different unlawful substances, by Mexican bombshell Crista Velarde, an ex-girlfriend.
Hanson had begun a ridiculously profitable drug enterprise in Australia – “he realized he might promote a kilo of cocaine there for $250,000, it sells for $20,000 within the US” – and in 2011 invited Cipriani Down Below.
The Philadelphia native, nevertheless, smelled a rat. He took a journalist from Fox Information, with whom he wished to doc all the things.
He paid $20,000 to fly him firstclass from Los Angeles to Sydney and put him up in his personal luxurious suite on the Sydney 4 Seasons.
It did not go to plan.
“He simply disappeared,” Cipriani recalled. “He did not find yourself writing a phrase.”
Cipriani was given $2.5 million to play blackjack which he thought would double within the fingers of a playing skilled.
He did not initially understand, nevertheless, that the ulterior motive was to launder the money as a substitute.
“I misplaced the lot on function,” he admitted. “It wasn’t straightforward.”
SICK VENGEANCE
Hanson, in the meantime, started to lose the plot. He turned violent and threatening.
At one level, Cipriani obtained a photograph. A person was filmed in entrance of his late mom’s grave. They’d scrawled sick messages on the gravestone and altered the date to at least one which, they mentioned, would signify the day of Cipriani’s dying.
“After I noticed that, I spotted I used to be going to place each one among these f**kng guys in jail,” he mentioned.
“He thought he was going to intimidate me. He did not understand that I used to be David and take down Goliath’s on a regular basis. I obtained a monitor report of taking down guys who thought they had been greater, higher, extra linked, extra highly effective, and had rather more cash.
“Guess what? They weren’t.”
The crunch got here in Australia. Cipriani tipped off the FBI, and Hanson’s descent started.
SECOND CHANCE
Now he’s out, nevertheless, the story continues.
Cipriani has spoken to the person he put behind bars. He is aware of he is broke, however regardless of all the things the pair have been by, a second probability is within the offing.
Initially, they made contact by a 3rd celebration. Cipriani was advised about Hanson’s dire state of affairs and supplied to provide him $1,000, which was readily accepted.
In response to Cipriani, Hanson has been seen again in Los Angeles and Orange County, desperately making an attempt to resurrect his life.
He supplied to pay his hire on an condo in Orange County for six months to assist him get his ft again on the bottom.
“I mentioned to him, ‘When you’ve reformed your self and you are going discuss to youngsters about how dangerous medicine are, and you’ve got modified your life, then I will make it easier to,'” he mentioned.
“I all the time hope for the nice in individuals. And I am hoping that he is modified. But when he walks off the straight line, guess who can be there.”
