Gilbert

Gilbert Arenas and Skip Bayless have made news lately for reasons they would rather forget. Now, they will attempt to put an entertaining spin on NFL news in a digital program launching Tuesday and airing three times a week.

Arenas, a Van Nuys Grant High product who played 11 seasons in the NBA, will rebrand his current channel. Bayless, who had long runs on ESPN’s “First Take” and FS1’s “Undisputed,” will be featured on “The Arena: Gridiron” along with former NFL coach Jay Gruden and former NFL cornerback Aqib Talib.

Arenas was arrested July 30 and charged along with five others with conspiracy for allegedly running illegal poker games at his Encino mansion, court records show. Arenas, 43, rented out the mansion “for the purposes of hosting high-stakes illegal poker games,” according to a news release issued by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

The three-time All-Star guard — who went by the nickname “Agent Zero” according to federal authorities — was charged with conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business, operating an illegal gambling business and making false statements to federal investigators.

Among the others charged was Yevgeni Gershman, 49, a.k.a. “Giora,” of Woodland Hills, who the U.S. attorney’s office described as “a suspected organized crime figure from Israel.” Arenas pleaded not guilty and was released on a $50,000 bond.

Bayless has also been sifting through court filings. He is a defendant along with Fox Sports, broadcaster Joy Taylor and executive Charlie Dixon in a lawsuit by former FS1 hairstylist Noushin Faraji, who alleged that Bayless offered her $1.5 million for sex.

Faraji filed a request to dismiss the lawsuit this month in L.A. Superior Court, which legal experts said is an indication that a settlement has been reached.

Bayless told the Athletic that he isn’t bothered by the criminal charges against Arenas.

“I’ve talked to Gil,” he said. “He has no concerns. I mean, he’s obviously concerned, but he believes he did nothing at all wrong, except rent out his space, and I believe in him.”

Underdog, a five-year-old gaming and media firm, will own and produce the show. Arenas’ two digital basketball programs under “Gil’s Arena” have become one of Underdog’s biggest draws.

Shifting to football prompted the addition of Bayless, whose spirited back-and-forth on social media with Arenas grew into a professional relationship.

“I’m back in the saddle in the debate arena,” Bayless said. “I live for this. I love this.”

Former NBA All-Star is among six indicted on US federal charges for conducting illegal gambling at his California mansion.

Former NBA All-Star guard Gilbert Arenas and five other defendants have been arrested on a federal indictment alleging they operated an illegal gambling business running high-stakes poker games at Arenas’s mansion in Encino, California.

Arenas, 43, is charged with one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business, one count of operating an illegal gambling business and one count of making false statements to federal investigators.

He was scheduled to make his initial appearance and be arraigned on Wednesday afternoon in the United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. If convicted, he would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each count.

Those arrested on Wednesday included 49-year-old Yevgeni Gershman, described as a suspected organised crime figure from Israel, according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California.

Arenas and the other defendants operated an illegal gambling business from September 2021 to July 2022, according to the indictment that was unsealed on Wednesday.

Arenas rented out the Encino mansion for the co-conspirators to host the illegal “Pot Limit Omaha” poker games, among other illegal games, with a fee charged from each pot either as a percentage or a fixed amount per hand.

Gershman hired women who were paid in tips and served drinks, provided massages and offered companionship to the poker players, with the women charged a percentage of their earnings by the business operators, per the indictment. Chefs, valets and armed security guards were also hired to staff the games.

Arenas was a three-time All-Star, and All-NBA second-team selection in 2006-07 and third team in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

He averaged 20.7 points, 5.3 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 552 regular-season games (455 starts) for the Golden State Warriors (2001-03), Washington Wizards (2003-10), Orlando Magic (2010-11) and Memphis Grizzlies (2012).

His NBA career was overshadowed by an incident in December 2009 in which he and Washington teammate Javaris Crittenton brought guns into the locker room two days after having a dispute on a flight during a card game.

Arenas pleaded guilty to felony gun possession and was suspended for the final 50 games of the 2009-2010 NBA season.

The Warriors selected Arenas in the second round (31st overall) of the 2001 NBA Draft out of Arizona.

Alijah Arenas, the Chatsworth High star and crown jewel of USC’s incoming recruiting class, was involved in a serious auto accident on Thursday morning, a person familiar with the situation not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times.

Arenas has been hospitalized and placed in a medically induced coma, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, who first reported the crash.

Alijah is the son of former NBA player Gilbert Arenas, who canceled plans to stream a new episode of his online show Thursday.

A top-10 recruit in the 2025 class, Alijah Arenas led Chatsworth High to the CIF Division II state championship game in March. He left Chatsworth as the all-time City Section scoring leader, with more than 3,000 points, and recently competed in the McDonald’s All-American game.

Arenas was slated to play a major role as a freshman at USC after choosing the Trojans over more established basketball powers like Arizona, Kansas and Kentucky.

Chatsworth students had the day off from school Thursday in observance of Armenian Genocide Memorial Day.

This is a developing story. Check back soon for updates.

Aurélien Viry, CEO, and Gilbert Cordier, head of Supply Chain Finance at Societe Generale Factoring, discuss how fintech partnerships and sustainability-linked supply chain finance help meet their clients’ goals.

Global Finance: Societe General recently established a collaborative relationship with CRX Markets, a German fintech. How does this enhance your supply chain finance (SCF) solutions for clients?

Aurélien Viry: Following the COVID pandemic, some large corporates faced issues with their supply chain, suppliers, and banking partners to fund increased requirements. To help strengthen their supply chain finance programs, some large corporates started looking for bank-agnostic solutions using multiple or successive funding partners.

This is precisely what we are offering through our partnership with CRX Markets. Societe Generale wants to better serve its clients by expanding its product offering and delivering the most suitable working capital solutions for large corporates. This could be either through our in-house or third-party platforms, but in both cases, large corporates can count on Societe Generale as a reliable partner for funding suppliers.

GF: What types of data do you analyze, and how does this analysis help clients optimize their working capital?

Gilbert Cordier: SCF does not only mean looking at days payable outstanding. Societe Generale uses its expertise to provide the best service to its clients regarding working capital advisory. We focus on the entire product lifecycle, including sales, inventory, and trade payables. We make a peer analysis based on available public information in annual reports and from our own receivables and payables programs, which encompasses peers of a particular client. This benchmark is highly appreciated by our clients and allows us to identify the best solution for optimizing working capital for them.

GF: How does your peers comparison feed into your working capital analysis tool, and what kind of competitive advantage does it provide your clients?

Cordier: Little information is publicly available, and SCF programs can be very light on detail. Sharing what peers do—but keeping their names confidential—and the payment term extensions they have been able to negotiate with similar suppliers is a significant input for our clients. Last but not least, having onboarded thousands of suppliers over the past years, our dedicated team has built close relationships with them, which makes it easier to convince an existing supplier to join an SCF program set up for another buyer.

GF: Can you provide an example of how sustainability-linked factoring works in practice, and its benefits?

Viry: Sustainability-linked SCF is a powerful solution for our clients to address their Scope 3 emissions targets. Scope 3 are the most significant emissions for most industry segments and probably the toughest ones for which our clients are trying to achieve some reductions. We apply a sustainability-linked bonus/malus [reward/penalty] mechanism to the funding rate we offer suppliers, creating an incentive for them to reduce emissions. Based on the client’s main ESG [environmental, social, governance] objectives, such as CO2 reduction, our sustainability-linked SCF program sets annual targets for suppliers to get a bonus on the program’s pricing.