Hours after a plaintiff implicated Gadoon “Spanky” Kyrollos in a complex 2023 extortion plot, the prominent sports bettor fired back in a detailed social media post on Tuesday night.
The public learned of the alleged extortion on Tuesday, when reports surfaced of an unconfirmed subway altercation in the New York City borough of Queens. According to a New York lawsuit, a plaintiff claimed he was approached by a “masked man” on a Long Island City subway platform in March 2023, as part of a commute to his Manhattan office. There, the presumed assailant grabbed the individual, whirled him around, and threatened to kill him unless he paid $500,000 to Kyrollos, the plaintiff alleged.
According to the lawsuit, Spanky claimed weeks earlier that he had access to the “upper echelon” of DraftKings’ staff and that they’d provide him with confidential information on the plaintiff’s betting account, the plaintiff further alleged. Initially filed in Supreme Court, Queens County, , was moved to U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in April. An already bizarre case added an even more bizarre twist on Tuesday night, when Spanky made his first public comments on the ordeal.
The individual described as “John Doe” is not only the plaintiff, but also the attorney representing the plaintiff, according to Spanky. The rebuttal from the prominent gambler left the sports betting community abuzz late Tuesday night on “X” formerly known as Twitter. Spanky identified “John Doe” as Steven Jacobs, a senior attorney at Herbert Smith Freehills’ New York office. As of noon ET, Spanky’s post has received more than 389,500 views.