All 22 people linked to an alleged Northwest Indiana gambling ring pleaded guilty on Thursday at the U.S. District Courthouse in Hammond.
Federal prosecutors are expected to turn over months worth of evidence to defense lawyers over the summer. The next hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. Sept. 10.
Prosecutors named James “Jimmy the Greek” Gerodemos, of Schererville, and Dean “Dean Gem” Gialamas, of Naperville, as leaders of Gerodemos Gambling Organization, which they ran out of the Paragon in Hobart and Gino’s Steak House in Merrillville.
The other people listed in the indictment are: Chris Gerodemos, of Crown Point; Basam “Donny Brasco” Ibrahim, of Portage; Sanad “Sanad Taka” Ibrahim, of St. John; Peter “Pete Goodys” Pavlopoulos, of Crown Point; Filippo “Gigi” Rovito, of Burr Ridge; Michael “Michael Way Out” Campbell; Ehab “Eddie” Mustafa, of Merrillville; Steve Armenta, of Portage; Samuel Nuzzo, of Crown Point; Alexander “Alex Gyros” Gagianas, of Mesa, Arizona; Gus “Deans Runner” Kaporis; Rami “Rami Straight Flush” Mansour, of Merrillville; Nenad “Butch Hunkee” Radoja, of St. John; Marcus “Vladimir Ganz” Ganz; Paul “Paulie Scarf” Franze; Athena Gerodemos, of Schererville; Elias Gerodemos, of Crown Point; James “Jim Macedonian” Strezovski, of Merrillville; Andrew “Caesars Andrew” Nguyen; and Giuseppe “Joe Polozzo” Manzi.
There was concern that federal prosecutors could file a RICO case later on, lawyer John Cantrell, representing Peter Pavlopoulos, said after the hearing. The case’s allegations spanned “over $5 million,” risking a decade in prison for even minor players, he said.
Chicago attorney Tom Breen, representing Rovito, told reporters he took issue with recent Chicago television media coverage outside the courthouse.
Breen said his client was slated to be named man of the year by his parish, but “didn’t want to take on the responsibility” because his relative was sick. He also said Rovito had donated Thanksgiving turkeys in the past. The lawyer was then asked to respond to allegations that Rovito told Gerodemos he would “shove” Victim 2’s head into a machine at a Florida casino.
“It didn’t happen,” he replied to the incident detailed in the federal indictment.
Lawyer Mark Gruenhagen, representing James’ daughter, Athena Gerodemos, called the case a “family matter,” but otherwise declined to speak on specifics. She appeared to cry during the hearing.
Co-defendant Ehab Mustafa will remain jailed for now. An ex-Gino’s cook, he allegedly traveled to Texas in June 2025 and left a Papa John’s pizza box with roses and a note threatening a man called Victim 1’s college-age daughter.
His lawyer, Michael A. Campbell, said he was competent to stand trial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson has signaled he wants new restrictions for Gialamas, who was arrested while on vacation in Puerto Rico. His defense lawyer has asked for Magistrate Judge Andrew Rodovich to let him travel for his job. Rodovich previously denied a request to travel this week.
Previously, Benson wrote how Gerodemos had paid former Lake County Sheriff John Buncich $10,000 per month to overlook illegal video poker machines at the Paragon restaurant in Hobart in the 1990s. Buncich was later convicted of public corruption charges in a towing scheme and sentenced to 12.5 years in prison. He was released to a Chicago halfway house last summer and on at least one occasion since then has been observed in the company of Gerodemos, according to a court filing.
In the current case, Jimmy Gerodemos allegedly ordered enforcers to try to recoup around $100,000 owed between four men — $45,000 from Victim 1; $30,000 Victim 2; $7,500 from Victim 3; and nearly $25,000 from Victim 4.
The 87-page affidavit also details how he grew increasingly angry after Victim 2 stalled on repaying his $30,000 gambling debt for nearly a year.
“Answer your phone, you disrespectful (expletive) Jew,” he texted the Florida man in August 2024, weeks before the one-year mark.
“Man, you don’t have to talk this way, even that you hate the Jewish (people),” the man texted him on Sept. 3, 2024, appearing to reference the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks on Israel. “This is now between you and God.”
“I’ll donate 10 million to the Palastine’s (sic) because (they’re)100 percent legit,” Gerodemos later responded.
The man also tells Gerodemos he doesn’t want to deal with a “gangster” and that the men should talk directly to settle the debt.
Rovito and Chris Gerodemos went to a Fort Lauderdale casino in September 2024 to look for the man. Jimmy Gerodemos later recalled that Rovito threatened to knock Victim 2’s “lights out” and “shove his head into a machine,” the affidavit states. While Facetiming James Gerodemos, Rovito walked up to every bald man on the casino floor, asking if he was Victim 2. Gerodemos told others Rovito was “nuts.”
Rovito, who owns Capri’s restaurant in Burr Ridge, was named in a federal affidavit detailing a “mob-connected” plot in Illinois in 2015 to “break the legs of a deadbeat” suburban Illinois businessman, according to the Chicago Tribune. He was not formally charged with wrongdoing.
“I’m trying to be fair to you,” Basam Ibraham texted Victim 2 later in February 2025. “I need you to make a payment, or I will have to pay you a visit.”
Basam Ibrahim texted co-defendant Michael Campbell, no relation to the lawyer, to “take a video” of Victim 2’s home and he would “do the rest.” The victim sent $1,000 to Basam Ibrahim and $500 to James Gerodemos days later, the affidavit alleges.
Campbell had an “admiration and aspiration to be part of the ‘mob culture’ as well as great admiration for James Gerodemos and all that he has accomplished with his criminal activities,” Benson wrote previously.
Campbell texted Gerodemos a news article on co-defendant Sam Nuzzo, Jr., partially detailing his federal case in the early 1990s for gambling crimes.
Nuzzo is mentioned only briefly in the affidavit, texting a question on numbers to Gerodemos.
Elsewhere, prosecutors appeared to backtrack on an allegation against Basam Ibrahim. At a hearing earlier this month, Benson insisted it was his voice in messages threatening Victim 1’s daughter.
Now in court filings, he conceded it was actually James Gerodemos.
