A former attorney from Los Angeles, who has been disbarred, has revealed that a serious gambling addiction compelled him to misappropriate hundreds of thousands of dollars from his clients.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced on July 21 that Sergio Valdovinos Ramirez, 36, has admitted to misappropriating over $300,000 from his clients and issuing fraudulent checks.
“The defendant misled and defrauded his clients out of funds intended for them, only to squander these resources through gambling. This was a precarious house of cards that ultimately collapsed when law enforcement and state bar officials uncovered his deceitful actions,” stated Hochman.
Ramirez has pleaded guilty to three felony counts of grand theft by embezzlement and one felony count due to insufficient funds in his checking account. He further acknowledged causing losses exceeding $100,000.
Prison Sentence and Restitution
Hochman indicated that Ramirez has agreed to pay $310,000 in restitution. In return for his guilty plea, he will face just two years in state prison, despite the charges carrying a maximum penalty of over a decade in incarceration.
During the period from 2019 to 2023, Ramirez confessed to swindling his clients out of money owed from court settlements and other legal matters. He admitted to issuing bad checks to clients while knowing there were insufficient funds in his account.
Ramirez was admitted to the State Bar of California in December 2017 but was declared ineligible to practice law in California in April 2023 amid the fraud investigation. He was formally disbarred in October 2024.
Throughout the investigation and court proceedings, Ramirez remained free on a recognizance bond.
Gambling Addiction at Cardrooms
The criminal complaint reveals that the disgraced attorney lost hundreds of thousands of dollars gambling at two well-known casino cardrooms in the Los Angeles area.
The complaint indicated that Ramirez regularly visited The Bicycle Casino and Commerce Casino, where he purchased at least $886,000 in gambling chips from 2019 to 2023. This five-year span included COVID-19 lockdowns, during which both casinos were shut down for extended periods due to state and local mandates.
California cardrooms offer non-house-banked table games like poker. Unlike traditional house-banked games such as blackjack, players at cardrooms take turns dealing in a player-designated dealer format.
The legal status of player-dealer models continues to evolve in state court, with a ruling in late June indicating that the California Bureau of Gambling Control overstepped its authority by enacting broad new rules limiting the practice.