Rob Gorodetsky moved to Las Vegas to make something of his life, and he wound up turning himself into a “human meme,” his attorneys said.

He created the larger-than-life “Instagram persona” known as “Big Rob” who bet big, bought flashy cars and jewelry, enjoyed piles of cash and made his way into exclusive events with celebrities and models.

But they said Gorodetsky’s piles of cash never lasted long. He often had to sell the cars immediately. “Big Rob Style” was “a living lie,” they told a judge. And Thursday, U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo sentenced the 28-year-old Gorodetsky to 28 months in prison for wire fraud.

“You are very young,” Bucklo noted before handing down the sentence. “But it’s just a massive, massive fraud.”

The sentencing hearing on the 23rd floor of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse made for an ignominious ending for a career that once prompted USA Today to ask, “Is this the future face of sports gambling?”

A lengthy 2017 profile in the newspaper described Gorodetsky as having “emerged as one of the most compelling and controversial, albeit largely unknown, figures in sports.” It said Gorodetsky and his inner circle thought he could go on to be “America’s leading sports bettor.”

But that was before federal prosecutors filed charges against Gorodetsky in January 2020, accusing him of swindling $9.6 million out of a single investor between 2014 and 2018. Though the investor has not been named, he is described in court papers as a successful New Jersey ophthalmologist and the father of a onetime girlfriend of Gorodetsky’s.

Gorodetsky pleaded guilty shortly after the charges were filed. Before he was sentenced Thursday, Gorodetsky spoke to the judge in a voice that was barely audible inside the courtroom. He apologized to the investor he stole from, and he said there was “nothing I can say or do that will ever make it right.”

The feds say Gorodetsky falsely made himself out to be a successful day trader, convincing the investor to hand over $953,000 between February and July 2014 with the understanding that they would share in the profits from the investments Gorodetsky would make. Instead, prosecutors said Gorodetsky invested only $215,000 and put another $747,388 to other use.

And while Gorodetsky told the investor the $953,000 had grown to $2 million, the money Gorodetsky had sunk into an E-Trade account was worth less than $72,000 by July 2014, records show.

Still, Gorodetsky convinced the investor to hand over another $8.74 million between July 2014 and November 2017 for sports wagering. Prosecutors said Gorodetsky used more than $2.2 million of that on travel and entertainment, as well as a Rolls Royce, a Bentley, two Lamborghinis and watch and jewelry purchases in excess of $324,000.

Prosecutors also said Gorodetsky failed to report nearly $7 million between 2014 and 2017. And before he scammed his girlfriend’s father, they said he managed to talk $516,570 out of at least eight other investors between 2011 and 2012, putting $231,500 to his own use and losing the rest in trading.

Defense attorney Chris Gair wrote in a court memo last year that Gorodetsky began his life as an “incredibly shy child” who was introduced to poker in middle school and began to gamble whenever he had the opportunity. USA Today wrote that Gorodetsky went to New Trier High School in Winnetka, and Gair wrote that Gorodetsky was suspended from school “for taking his classmates’ money at poker games and setting up a gambling hall in high school.”

Gair wrote that the USA Today profile turned out to be Gorodetsky’s undoing, prompting investigations by the Nevada Gaming Commission and the FBI.

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MIAMI — It was billed as the beginning of the end for Nicolas Maduro. With foreign leaders in tow and the world watching, anti-Maduro activists gathered in Colombia in February 2019 with the aim of pushing entire warehouses worth of aid — flown in on U.S. military cargo planes — across the border into Venezuela.

Instead, the humanitarian convoy was violently blocked by security forces loyal to Maduro — the first in a series of miscalculations in the Trump administration’s policy toward Venezuela.

More than two years later, the risky gambit is being questioned by a U.S. government watchdog. A new report by the inspector general at the U.S. Agency for International Development raises doubts about whether the deployment of aid was driven more by the U.S. pursuit of regime change than by technical analysis of needs and the best ways to help struggling Venezuelans.

The findings were published April 16 but have not been previously reported.

The report focuses on the frenzied few months after opposition leader Juan Guaido rose up to challenge Maduro’s rule, quickly winning recognition as Venezuela’s rightful leader by the U.S. and dozens of allies.

As part of that effort, USAID between January and April 2019 spent $2 million to position 368 tons of emergency supplies on the Caribbean island of Curacao and on the Colombia-Venezuela border.

Under Guaido’s orders, the aid was supposed to be delivered into Venezuela in defiance of Maduro, who condemned the effort as a veiled coup attempt. But when an opposition-organized caravan that tried to enter Venezuela was blocked at the border, at least one truck caught fire, destroying $34,000 worth of U.S.-supplied aid.

As media attention turned away and Guaido’s fight to unseat Maduro unraveled in the months that followed, the U.S. assistance was quietly repurposed. In the end, only eight tons ever reached Venezuela, with the remaining 360 tons distributed inside Colombia or shipped to Somalia, the report found.

The report said the U.S. deployment of aid responded in part to the Trump administration’s campaign to pressure Maduro rather than just coming to the aid of struggling Venezuelans.

For example, the assistance was needlessly delivered in giant Air Force C-17 cargo planes instead of cheaper commercial options that were available, the report said. Ready-to-use meals to fight child malnutrition were also sent even though USAID’s own experts had decided the nutritional status of Venezuelan children didn’t warrant its use at the time, investigators said.

To bolster Guaido, USAID — believing U.N. agencies had been co-opted by Maduro — minimized funding to the United Nations even though some U.N. agencies had infrastructure inside Venezuela to distribute the aid. A Venezuelan nonprofit organization, which isn’t identified by name in the report, was awarded funding partly based on its alignment with U.S. foreign policy interests even though doubts persisted about whether it could meet the agency’s legal and financial requirements.

The “directive to pre-position humanitarian commodities was not driven by technical expertise or fully aligned with the humanitarian principles of neutrality, independence and being based on needs assessments,” the report says.

While international aid workers at the time issued similar warnings about the risks of assistance being politicized — the aid convoy in Colombia was preceded by a “Venezuela Live Aid” concert organized by billionaire Richard Branson — the findings of a U.S. agency tasked with auditing how U.S. tax dollars are spent carries additional weight.

The report, which was nearly two years in the making, was prepared to address challenges and “fraud risks” in USAID’s response to the Venezuelan crisis. It contains six recommendations to improve coordination across the sprawling agency — the main vehicle for U.S. foreign assistance — and strengthen controls to avoid politicizing humanitarian action.

A USAID spokesperson said the agency welcomed the report’s findings, which it is implementing, and all efforts to improve the effectiveness of USAID’s work, especially in challenging environments.

Many of the decisions came from the office of then-USAID Administrator Mark Green, according to the report.

“The verbal direction did not establish clear accountability nor did it provide justification for decision-making,” the report said.

A former Trump-era official disputed some of the report’s findings, maintaining that the decision to send the aid on military planes was taken by the White House and State Department over objections from USAID. The former official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal decision making,

Green, in a statement, said he was proud of USAID’s work to help Venezuelans in desperate need of assistance with bipartisan support from Congress.

“The Venezuelan crisis is one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world under the most challenging conditions where the illegitimate Maduro regime continues to place obstacles that prevent basic necessities for the Venezuelan people,” said Green, who is now president of the Woodrow Wilson Center, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington. “The Venezuelan crisis is a destabilizing force that impacts the entire region and assistance continues to be needed to help save lives.”

Whatever mistakes were made, the Trump administration’s actions — coinciding with Venezuela’s economic collapse — were key in pushing other governments and humanitarian groups to focus on the country’s plight.

Shortly after Guaido’s aid delivery caravan failed, USAID started quietly working behind the scenes with U.N. agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other groups to get aid into Venezuela, where such goods are frequently distributed at government hospitals and agencies controlled by Maduro.

Those efforts have continued under President Joe Biden and recently saw the announcement that the World Food Program would soon begin distributing meals to 1.5 million Venezuelan children at a time of rising hunger in the oil-rich nation.

Since 2017, the U.S. has provided more than $500 million in humanitarian and development assistance to respond to the humanitarian crisis, much of it to countries like Colombia, Peru and Brazil that have absorbed the largest number of migrants.

___

Joshua Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman

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English rock band Genesis is returning to the U.S. for their first tour in 14 years.

Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford announced The Last Domino? Tour on Thursday, which will kick off at Chicago’s United Center on Nov. 15.

Genesis will play two shows in the New York area, at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Dec. 5 and the brand-new UBS Arena on Long Island on Dec. 10.

The 14-date tour will also visit Washington, D.C., Charlotte, Montreal, Toronto, Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia. The trek wraps in Boston on Dec. 15.

Tickets for the general public go on sale May 7. See www.genesis-music.com for details.

Collins, Banks and Rutherford were part of Genesis’ blockbuster ’80s lineup that produced hits including “That’s All,” “Invisible Touch” and “In Too Deep.” On the tour, they will be joined by their longtime guitar and bass player Daryl Stuermer and Collins’ son Nic on drums.

Genesis’ last U.S. tour was 2007’s Turn It On Again: The Tour.

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Chicago Bears 2021 NFL Draft: 3 bold predictions for draft weekend by Jordan Campbell

General manager Ryan Pace is at his do-or-die threshold, folks. The Chicago Bears are entering a crucial period as the 2021 NFL Draft kicks off.

A lot of rumors continue to fly around today, and one of them remains that Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields could fall to pick seven or later. If Fields does indeed fall, the Bears would have to be the one team to watch out for.

After all, even The Chicago Tribune’s own Brad Biggs is feeling as though the Bears will do everything they can to move up for a quarterback. Tonight could get wild, and the fans are here for it.

All day long, we’re continuing to see the rumblings and reports shuffle through. One of the bigger ones is from senior Pro Football Focus analyst Steve Palazzolo, who tweeted one simple phrase Thursday afternoon.

The national media is starting to pay attention to the Chicago Bears and what they might do.

Keep an eye on the Bears?

— Steve Palazzolo (@PFF_Steve) April 29, 2021

Historically, PFF has not been kind to the Bears. Chicago has been a team they love to hate. But, if Palazzolo is putting his name out there like this in connection with the Bears, then there is much reason to stop and listen.

Chicago is in desperate need of a franchise quarterback, and it appears they may end up with one tonight. The questions are aplenty, though.

If the Bears trade up, with which team are they going to partner? That might depend on Pace’s top target. It also depends upon which quarterbacks last past pick three. We know Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson are going 1-2, but the San Francisco 49ers hold a lot of weight with that third overall pick.

After the 49ers make their selection, things could start to go off the rails in a hurry and Pace may need to take a leap of faith. As Biggs had in his final mock draft, Chicago moved up to that fourth pick to take Trey Lance out of North Dakota State.

If it’s not Lance, it’s likely Justin Fields, assuming many of the reports regarding Mac Jones to the 49ers hold true.

Then again, Jones might not be the pick at three — and we’re in for a wild ride.

The one report coming out on Thursday which makes the trade talk even more intriguing is what Ian Rapoport stated about 2022 draft picks. He tweeted out that next year’s picks will be valued like “gold,” insinuating that a team like Chicago may not have to give up as much as we originally thought.

For the Bears to move up into the fourth pick, for example, it would have been assumed that they would need to give up three first-round picks. Now, after Rapoport’s tweet, maybe that value changes.

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Bears Final 7-Round Mock Draft: The pressure is on

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Whatever the case may be, Palazzolo seems to be onto something here. Maybe the Bears are going to shock the world tonight — and hopefully this time, Pace gets it right.

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President Joe Biden spoke for over an hour Wednesday in his first address to a joint session of Congress, raising urgent issues from the need to get Americans vaccinated to the jobs that will be created fighting climate change to the key role immigration has always played in the American story.

But 10 words the president said early in his speech were particularly accurate and alarming, when he referred to the Jan. 6 insurrection as “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”

It had to be said plainly because the bulk of the Republican Party, deformed and unrecognizable after five years of rolling like puppies at the feet of Donald Trump, still does not accept reality. Polls show 70% of Republicans believe the Big Lie that the election was stolen, despite a complete lack of evidence. Half believe the Jan. 6 insurrection against our democracy was committed not by Trump supporters whipped into a frenzy, but by Democrats — Black Lives Matter activists in whiteface, perhaps — “trying to make Trump look bad.” As if he needs help.

“The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.” It must be repeated because of the shocking resilience of right-wing extremism. Indeed, Trump apologists zeroed in on these specific words for their typical hoots of incomprehension and ridicule. Yet it is literally a matter of life or death, our nation’s and theirs. Trump’s toxic distortion of masculinity that allowed him to grope women and pretend he is always right and always wins also made him reject wearing masks and vaccines — he got his in secret. Millions of Americans listened to him, causing hundreds of thousands to die. Millions still listen, meaning hundreds of thousands more will die. Following him into their graves, literally.

No one can be glad of that. It’s tragic and horrible. But I’m not writing to try and jar them from their error. That’s futile. Those who do not form their positions through reason cannot be argued out of them by reason.

Caroline Brehman/Pool photo/Getty Images

Rather I’m writing this to steel Democrats, and what few Republicans stand by the principles they once claimed, for the challenge ahead. This is a long fight and not close to over. Democracy is recent and fragile; despotism is ancient and endures. Look at Russia: its flirtation with democracy came and went. Now they have Putin, and most Russians revere Stalin.

Trump is coming back, or one of his surrogates. We must be ready. The other crucial thing Biden said Wednesday is that the “sacred right to vote” is under attack all across the country, as Trumpites try to ensure the American people don’t defeat them again at the ballot box, undercutting the mechanics of elections while calling it security.

Democrats must see this clearly and rally around the values we cherish: free and fair elections, an unfettered press, the rule of law. We need to accept that most Republicans — some otherwise good people, mumbling rationalizations for betraying America — would rather hurt our country and themselves than join together to address our common problems.

It is hard to understand.

Associated Press

Maybe the trouble is a lifetime of movies where the tyrant is vanquished by the plucky band of rebels and the scales instantly fall from the eyes of the monster’s minions. They reform on the spot. The Wicked Witch of the West goes melting, melting, melting into a puddle of beautiful wickedness.

“You’ve melted her!” one of her bearskin-hatted henchmen says, kneeling before the pool of liquid witch. His comrades drop to their knees and chant in unison, “Hail Dorothy! The Wicked Witch is dead!”

Only in the movies. In the real world, half the castle guard would take their pikes to Dorothy and her friends, while the other half go sit in the courtyard, eyes skyward, a cargo cult waiting for the return of their beloved master, singing his praises to pass the time.

President Biden obviously has hope, and is leaving the door open for them to find their true American nature again. Some will accept his offer, and at this moment of crisis, our nation needs every true and stout heart we can get. Remember, during the American Revolution, a third of colonists were Tories, and remained loyal to King George III. That craven third, hungry for a king, is with us still, and always will be.

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Michael Bussan considers himself a tough guy, but the Uber driver couldn’t help crying as he rushed a wounded man and his brother to a hospital after they crashed their car while fleeing from a shooting.

“His brother is screaming, ‘I’ve got you bro, I’ve got you bro,'” Bussan said. “I’ve never seen two people care so much about each other.”

Bussan said he had dropped off a passenger in the South Loop when he saw the crash in the 1000 block of South Clark Street around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The brothers and another person had been riding in a silver Chevrolet Malibu when someone in another car fired at them, hitting one of the brothers several times in the abdomen in the 2900 block of South Indiana Avenue.

The driver of the Malibu continued driving to get to a hospital, but crashed into a Jeep Wrangler, police said. Coming on the scene, Bussan said he asked what happened and was told a man had been shot but that an ambulance was still several minutes away.

People were staring at the scene from a distance with their phones out, said Bussan, 46. “They wouldn’t get out of their cars. And I’m like, ‘Are you going to help him?’

“I’m like, ‘I’ll take you, both of you,” Bussan said he told the 21-year-old gunshot victim and his brother. “Take care of your brother while I’m driving.”

Bussan said the brother called his mother, a nurse, who told him to remove his shirt and apply pressure on the wounds. “Just push your hands against his stomach and hold in as much blood as you can,” Bussan recalled her saying.

“I was doing like 100 mph down Columbus to get to that hospital,” he said. “And when I entered there, I was yelling, ‘I’ve got a kid with bullet wounds and he’s dying. He’s got minutes.'”

Bussan said doctors at Northwestern Hospital stabilized the man’s condition, but he remained on a ventilator due to the trauma and blood loss. Police said the man was listed in critical condition.

The brother’s mother showed up to the hospital and thanked Bussan for “giving them an opportunity to fight for their lives,” he said.

Bussan said he teared up while witnessing one brother care for the other. “I’m a bodybuilder, powerlifter, and I’m Polish and Russian. If we sit there and cry, they’d say man up,” Bussan said.

“Last night, everyone who called me said, ‘God was on your side,'” he added. “That’s the first time I’ve seen bunch of 300-pound men say, ‘God was with you, bro.’ Everyone had a soft side last night. And I’m like, this is the only night we’re sharing this, otherwise we’re a bunch of tough guys.”

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Now that fans will be allowed back into the United Center, what is the process for getting tickets?

The city announced Thursday that the remaining Blackhawks and Bulls games can have 25% capacity.

“We miss them. It feels like it’s been a while and we all can’t wait to have whatever amount it is back,” Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy said. “A lot of new guys on the team who haven’t been on the team all year don’t know what it’s like and have been itching [to experience it].

Current Blackhawks full season ticketholders will have priority access to single-game tickets starting Monday, May 3. New full season ticketholders who lock in their 2021-22 seats before Monday will also get priority access.

Remaining tickets will become available to the general public on Tuesday, May 4 at noon.

“What makes the NHL so great is the passion from the fans and the energy and history,” Murphy said. “It’s about winning together and doing it as a city. With the fan base and players, it makes it such an amazing experience. Those other cities, the games feel more intense when you hear those roars from the crowd on goals for either side. Where here, you just have that fake crowd noise lately, you know there’s not much action around the rink in the stands with big plays or big goals. So it’ll be awesome to get back closer to normal.”

Tickets will only be sold in groups of two or four adjacent seats to maintain physical distance. No two groups of seats will be closer than 6 feet apart and fans will not need to pass each other in rows of seats. Face coverings will be required inside the United Center.

All Blackhawks tickets will be distributed as mobile tickets, accessed via Ticketmaster.com. Screenshots or printouts will not work for entry into the arena.

Current and 2021-22 Bulls season ticketholders will have access to single-game tickets on May 3 and May 4. Any remaining tickets will be released to the general public on May 5 at 10 a.m.

The Bulls will also only use mobile tickets, which can be accessed via ClickTix. Like with the Blackhawks, printouts and screenshots will not be accepted.

The first Bulls home game with fans will be against the Boston Celtics on May 7 with a 6:30 p.m. start time. The Blackhawks’ first game with fans will be May 9 a 6 p.m. against the Dallas Stars.

Visit Blackhawks.com/Tickets and Bulls.com for more information.

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Rob Gorodetsky moved to Las Vegas to make something of his life and wound up turning himself into a “human meme,” his attorneys said.

He created the larger-than-life “Instagram persona” known as “Big Rob” who bet big, bought flashy cars and jewelry, enjoyed piles of cash and made his way into exclusive events with celebrities and models.

But they said Gorodetsky’s piles of cash never lasted long. He often had to sell the cars immediately. “Big Rob Style” was “a living lie,” they told a judge. And Thursday, U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo sentenced Gorodetsky, 28, to 28 months in prison for wire fraud.

“You are very young,” Bucklo noted before handing down the sentence. “But it’s just a massive, massive fraud.”

The sentencing hearing on the 23rd floor of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse made for an ignominious ending for a career that once prompted USA Today to ask, “Is this the future face of sports gambling?”

A lengthy 2017 profile in the newspaper described Gorodetsky as having “emerged as one of the most compelling and controversial, albeit largely unknown, figures in sports.” It said Gorodetsky and his inner circle thought he could go on to be “America’s leading sports bettor.”

But that was before federal prosecutors filed charges against Gorodetsky in January 2020, accusing him of swindling $9.6 million out of a single investor between 2014 and 2018. Though the investor has not been named, he is described in court papers as a successful New Jersey ophthalmologist and the father of a onetime girlfriend of Gorodetsky’s.

Gorodetsky pleaded guilty shortly after the charges were filed.

The feds say Gorodetsky falsely made himself out to be a successful day trader, convincing the investor to hand over $953,000 between February and July 2014 with the understanding that they would share in the profits from the investments Gorodetsky would make. Instead, prosecutors said Gorodetsky invested only $215,000 and put another $747,388 to other use.

And while Gorodetsky told the investor the $953,000 had grown to $2 million, the money Gorodetsky had sunk into an E-Trade account was worth less than $72,000 by July 2014, records show.

Still, Gorodetsky convinced the investor to hand over another $8.74 million between July 2014 and November 2017 for sports wagering. Prosecutors said Gorodetsky used more than $2.2 million of that on travel and entertainment, as well as a Rolls Royce, a Bentley, two Lamborghinis and watch and jewelry purchases in excess of $324,000.

Prosecutors also said Gorodetsky failed to report nearly $7 million between 2014 and 2017. And before he scammed his girlfriend’s father, they said he managed to talk $516,570 out of at least eight other investors between 2011 and 2012, putting $231,500 to his own use and losing the rest in trading.

Defense attorney Chris Gair wrote in a court memo last year that Gorodetsky began his life as an “incredibly shy child” who was introduced to poker in middle school and began to gamble whenever he had the opportunity. USA Today wrote that Gorodetsky went to New Trier High School in Winnetka, and Gair wrote that Gorodetsky was suspended from school “for taking his classmates’ money at poker games and setting up a gambling hall in high school.”

Gair wrote that the USA Today profile turned out to be Gorodetsky’s undoing, prompting investigations by the Nevada Gaming Commission and the FBI.

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Chicago Bears Draft: Hope for the best, but expect the worst by William Martin

The Chicago Cubs’ struggles were not solved last night during their 10-0 loss at the hands of the Atlanta Braves. However, there was one fun moment during the game.

The Atlanta Braves have humiliated the Chicago Cubs so far this season.

10-0, 5-0, and 13-4 are some of the worst scores the Cubs have given up this season and they are all at the hands of the Atlanta Braves. Kyle Hendricks had one of his worst games of the season giving up three home runs and 11 hits.

With the game basically over in the bottom of the seventh David Ross and the Cubs decided to give Anthony Rizzo a chance on the mound, and boy did he deliver.

Rizzo struck out Freddie Freeman who went 4 for 5 on the night including a home run in the sixth inning. In case you missed last night’s game (good for you) check out the one highlight worth watching from the blow-out loss.

Take a seat, FREDERICK.@ARizzo44 pic.twitter.com/ArqdIRVuM3

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 29, 2021

Last night’s game showed what the 10-14 Cubs are missing. The Cubs can get hits, but their pitching has been super underwhelming. Hendricks and Mills played horribly and the team didn’t stand a chance after the first few innings.

The selfish approach the Cubs have offensively might be an issue, but for now, it is the pitching that is really killing the team. This does not seem to be the Cubs season. Even if Kyle Hendricks bounces back and Jake Arrieta remains consistent the Cubs are not in a good position to be serious contenders. The team currently sits at the bottom of the NL Central, and chances are they could be competing down towards the bottom for a while.

Chicago Cubs: Time to work on an extension for Willson Contreras

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The Cubs are back in action tonight against the Atlanta Braves once again. Having lost their last five games, the Cubs are in desperate need of a win. This season has been challenging, but good thing there are moments like the Rizzo strikeout to get fans through the tough times. Time for a bounce-back win.

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