After claiming responsibility for tipping off the FBI and Australian authorities to an international cocaine and money-laundering syndicate by alerting them to a suitcase with $702,000 cash in a Sydney hotel, banned professional gambler Robin Hood 702 is back in the news.
Robert Cipriani, who goes by the alias Robin Hood 702 (702 is the telephone code for Las Vegas), has filed an explosive lawsuit in New York claiming Canadian billionaire Daryl Katz offered Cipriani's wife, Brazilian model and actress Greice Santo, movie roles and millions of dollars in exchange for ongoing sex.
![Robert Cipriani, who goes by the alias Robin Hood 702.](/web/20170412023534im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/h/h/u/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvhabk.png/1491793013671.jpg)
But in a strange twist it isn't Katz whom Cipriani is suing. The gambler is going after the billionaire's spin doctor.
Last week Cipriani, who has blamed the Herald for his worldwide banning from casinos, filed a defamation lawsuit against G.F. Bunting Co, a crisis PR firm representing Katz.
![Robert Cipriani, the banned professional gambler who goes by the alias Robin Hood 702, is back in the news.](/web/20170412023534im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/h/b/l/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvhabk.png/1491793013671.jpg)
Cipriani claims that the firm's president, Glenn Bunting, trashed his reputation in order to stop the New York Post from running the story.
The salacious allegations were reported in Variety, which covers Hollywood.
Santo who played Blanca in the television series Jane The Virgin, alleges that in 2015 she was twice lured to the hotel room of Katz, a movie financier who also owns hockey team the Edmonton Oilers.
Variety reported that Katz promised he could help her acting career and that, although she rebuffed his advances, Santo later received two wire transfers totaling $35,000.
In his lawsuit, Cipriani claims that his wife's other "suitors" Leonardo DiCaprio, Axl Rose, John Stamos and Jim Carrey all "accepted no for an answer", while Katz did not.
Katz's lawyer responded to the Variety story, saying: "Robert J. Cipriani is a convicted felon who has been menacing Mr. Katz and his family for more than a year."
Cipriani previously threatened to sue Fairfax Media and has alleged in various US media outlets that an article in the Herald led to his banning from every casino in the world.
On August 11, 2011, police received an anonymous tip-off that the occupant of room 3026 in the Hilton Hotel had a gun. The occupant, Sean Carolan, an ex-racehorse trainer turned personal trainer, didn't have a gun - but he did have a black suitcase containing $702,000, which the police seized.
This sparked an international investigation when Mr Carolan told police he was minding the money for his new business partner in a weight-loss clinic, Owen Hanson jnr, to prevent Hanson from blowing it at the casino.
At the time, CCTV footage at Sydney's Star casino showed Cipriani in a heated conversation with Mr Carolan and Hanson.
Cipriani claims he refused to be involved in Hanson's attempts to launder drug money through the casino and that it was he who made the anonymous call about room 3026.
In September 2015, arrests were made both in Australia and in the US. In January, Hanson agreed to a 20-year sentence after pleading guilty to running a drug syndicate which distributed throughout the US and exported to Australia hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, MDMA (ecstasy), metabolic steroids and human growth hormone.
Last month, Melbourne concert promoter Andrew McManus had his 20-month jail term commuted to an intensive corrections order after pleading guilty to lying to police over the ownership of the $702,000 cash.
"It's not the proceeds of crime, it's the proceeds of Andrew McManus," he told police.
Various media outlets in the US have chronicled Cipriani's exploits in becoming an FBI informant with the code name "Jackpot", including Rolling Stone which ran a feature on "How a Vigilante Gambler Took Down an Alleged Crime Boss".