BROOKLYN, NY (June 10, 2026) — Federal prosecutors have proposed placing New Rochelle defendant Louis “Sloppy Louie” “Lou App” Apicella in the first trial group of defendants facing charges in the alleged NBA-linked poker and organized crime case, while reporting that six co-defendants have already pleaded guilty and plea negotiations continue with numerous others.
The update was contained in a June 9 status report filed yesterday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York ahead of a scheduled June 11 court conference in United States v. Ernest Aiello et al., a sprawling federal prosecution involving alleged illegal gambling and related offenses.
Prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Ramon E. Reyes Jr. that six defendants — Saul Becher, Kenny Han, Osman Hoti, Damon Jones, Robert Stroud and Seth Trustman — have entered guilty pleas since the last status conference on March 4.
The government said it remains engaged in “extensive plea negotiations” with numerous remaining defendants and is “reasonably optimistic” those discussions will lead to additional pretrial resolutions. Prosecutors reported they are discussing a possible disposition involving 15 remaining defendants and are engaged in separate discussions with several others.
At a prior conference, the court stated that the first trial should begin Nov. 2, 2026, and directed the parties to submit proposed trial groupings.
Under the government’s proposal, Apicella would be tried in Trial Group 1 with Angelo Ruggiero, Ammar Awawdeh, Matt Daddino, Lee Fama, John Gallo, Shane Hennen, Joe Lanni and Nicholas Minucci.
Prosecutors said the proposed groupings place together defendants “for whom the evidence will substantially overlap” and prioritize groups containing detained defendants Angelo Ruggiero and Thomas Gelardo.
The government also asked the court to consider scheduling the first trial in early 2027 instead of Nov. 2, citing the possibility that ongoing plea negotiations could significantly reduce the number of defendants proceeding to trial.
According to the filing, prosecutors expect that ongoing negotiations and future pretrial motions could narrow the case to fewer than eight defendants, potentially reducing the matter to a single trial group.
The government reported that discovery production has continued on a rolling basis. Since March, prosecutors said they have produced cell-site location data for numerous defendants, additional electronic evidence seized from devices and iCloud accounts, approximately 259 hours of audio and video recordings contained in 1,580 files, and additional records obtained from third parties.
The filing states that prosecutors have also produced full forensic extractions of electronic devices and iCloud accounts belonging to individual defendants, totaling approximately 2.097 terabytes of data, along with corresponding search warrant affidavits.
Federal prosecutors requested that the next status conference be scheduled approximately 60 to 90 days after the June 11 proceeding to allow continued discovery review, plea negotiations and additional change-of-plea hearings.
This article was prepared with the assistance of AI tools under the direction and editing of Robert Cox.
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