6 December 8–14, 2022 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Month XX–Month XX, 2014 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER | Classified | MusiC | dish | Movies | Culture | Night+day | feature | sChutze | uNfair Park | CoNteNts | Marlins starting pitcher Pablo López is ru- mored to be up for grabs for the right price. The Rangers have young guys like Ezequiel Durán and Josh Smith who might be attrac- tive to a team like the Marlins or Pirates. This makes a hitters-for-pitchers swap easy to imagine. Of course, that’s easier said than done, but what’s a hopeful offseason preview without a heavy dose of wishful thinking? Even we Ranger fans can be optimistic — at least until June. ▼ Crime (Not) Made iN the USa Grand Prairie Man defrauds the u.s. with Chinese eleCtroniCs. by Kelly Dearmore S uhaib Allababidi, 45, of Grand Prairie lied to the federal government about where the products his company sold to government entities were manufac- tured, says U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Chad E. Meacham. According to a statement released by Meacham’s office, Allababidi ’s company, 2M Solutions in Grand Prairie, supplied gov- ernment agencies with electronic equip- ment, claiming all the products were American-made instead of disclosing that they were made in China. The charging document, filed on Nov. 15, states that Allababidi ensured all labels and documentation noting Chinese origins were removed from products before they were delivered to the government. By maintain- ing their products were American-made, the document reads, “the defendants were also able to secure contracts with the United States and its agencies that had preferences for products made in the United States.” Last month, Allababidi pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, and 2M Solutions pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of filing false or misleading export information. According to the company website, 2M Solutions “provides the unique expertise necessary to build the perfect solution for all of your commercial, educational, industrial, and governmental security needs.” The website also claims that 2M has serviced more than 90,000 clients in more than 20 countries. It’s alleged that Allababidi and 2M Solu- tions lied about its products being manufac- tured in China to subvert the Buy America Act (BAA), a law that prohibits government agencies from purchasing goods for use that are made outside of the U.S. In 2014 2M Solutions was awarded a five-year contract to provide American- made electronic products to the U.S. Gov- ernment Services Administration, and in 2018 the Department of Defense awarded 2M Solutions a $49,500 contract for three solar security camera trailers. The trailers were shipped directly from China to a U.S. military base for more than $11,000. In 2019, 2M sold the Defense Depart- ment a pair of solar-powered camera towers for $33,877. None of the items sold by 2M under these agreements were manufactured in the U.S. According to the charging document, Alla- babidi and 2M Solutions purchased “large quantities of security cameras, NVRs [network video recorders] and DVRs [digital video re- corders] from the People’s Republic of China.” These items were then made to look as though they were American by removing any Chinese labels or markings and replacing them with American map-shaped flag decals or labels reading “Made in the U.S.A.” The government claims Allababidi and 2M Solutions went to great lengths to keep up appearances by bringing their Chinese suppliers into the mix. “On one occasion, when products were to be shipped directly from a Chinese company to the government agency,” Meacham’s statement reads, “a 2M employee sent the Chinese company an email reminding them, ‘We do not want any Chinese characters or stickers on the ship- ment’ and adding that such stickers ‘will cause many problems for us.’” In an unrelated case, according to the ACLU’s website, Allababidi was a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Department of Home- land Security in 2019 following a 2017 inci- dent at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport when his two phones were confis- cated by customs and border protection agents as he returned from an overseas trip. Although the initial ruling favored the plain- tiffs, that decision was overturned on appeal in 2021. Allababidi faces up to five years in federal prison, and his company faces up to $1 mil- lion in fines, or twice the amount of crimi- nally derived property, whichever is greater. ▼ gambling What are the oddS? state reP says his Bill Could Be Good or Bad for texas Poker rooMs. by Jacob Vaughn S tate Rep. Gene Wu, a Democrat from Houston, filed a bill earlier this month with language that could force many poker rooms shut down across the state. But Wu said a filing error led to a portion of the bill being left out. This portion of the bill would essentially toss the legality of poker rooms into the hands of county officials. The bill Wu filed on Nov. 16, House Bill 732, clarified a gray area in the Texas penal code that commercial poker rooms have re- lied on to stay in business. The code pro- vides a defense against prosecution for gambling as long as it’s happening in a pri- vate place, everyone has a fair chance of winning and the house doesn’t take a por- tion of the bets. Some poker clubs, like Texas Card House in Dallas, have opted to charge membership fees like a private club and sell concessions. Everyone has an equal chance of winning and all of the bets go back to the players. Wu’s bill would have changed the code to provide the defense against prosecution in private resi- dences instead of private places in general. With more than 60 poker rooms in Texas, including three in Dallas, this would surely cause issues across the state, but Wu said there’s more to his bill that could soften the blow. Wu told the Observer during a phone call last week that the draft of his bill was meant to include a few more lines that said com- mercial poker rooms could be allowed only if they were licensed and regulated by the counties they’re in. A new version of the bill has not been filed yet. Wu said there’s too much of a gray area in the law and it could hurt the players, the busi- nesses and the surrounding communities alike. The way the laws are written now, there’s essentially no regulation of these busi- nesses, Wu said, and the gray area makes it hard to take action against bad actors. From the players’ perspective, the ambiguity in the law and the way different municipalities han- dle poker rooms make for an environment where they’re a criminal in one county or city and a legal player in the next. “Even in a county like Harris County with like 28 police jurisdictions, you might be violating the law based on which munici- pal boundary you’re inside,” Wu said. “So we’re trying to provide some protec- tion for people, especially if they’re going to play at home. … But if you are doing it in a commercial setting there should be some clarity about what operations are proper and which ones are not.” And he thinks the county officials may be the right ones to make this call. “If a busi- ness is in a county and the county just says ‘All we want to do is take your picture, give you a license and charge you $10’ so be it,” Wu said. “But I think the important part of that is if there’s a way for counties to say ‘No. You guys are consistent bad operators. You’re a consistent bad actor. We’ve had so many complaints. We’ve had so many drug busts and so many prostitution busts at your operation. We need some way of shutting you down.’ And right now, there’s basically no way of shutting them down.” He said if a gambling operation doesn’t have a TABC alcohol license or serve food, there’s no license to take away and put bad actors out of business. Wu doesn’t think there’s enough political support in the Legislature to roll out state regulations on poker rooms, which he said he supports. To him, the next best thing is to leave the decision to the counties. “For the state to put in the regulations, I think is a problem,” he said. “Creating a legal structure where we just tell counties ‘Hey, if you want to do this, if you guys want to have these oper- ations, you figure out the regulatory pathway’ is a smarter political way to go.” If a county wants to take a hard stance against commercial poker rooms, officials could simply decide not to regulate them. There might be room for conversations about grandfathering in poker rooms that are already open, Wu said. But he said peo- ple may also have to live with the fact that some counties may never want to allow commercial poker rooms. “You know, there are counties in Texas that are dry,” Wu said. “They don’t serve alcohol at all. If that’s the pathway they want to go down, that’s the pathway they want to go down.” Dallas poker rooms have mostly seen challenges from the city of Dallas instead of the county. For example, the city is tangled up in a lawsuit with Texas Card House over the issuance of the poker room’s certificate of occupancy. The city claims the certifi- cates should have never been issued, arguing that the defense to prosecution against gam- bling was only supposed to apply to places like private residences (an argument that Wu’s bill would solidify). If Wu’s bill is passed as he claims it was meant to be filed, he said residents and city officials could then advocate at the county level for how they want poker rooms to be handled. He thinks Dallas of- ficials and residents would choose a path forward that would allow commercial poker rooms to stay. “Does the city of Dallas have some gener- alized angst and dislike of poker in general?” Wu said. “I don’t think they do. I think their lawsuits and their attack is based on the fact that they have run out of options to deal with them.” Wu said his bill could give the city more options on how to deal with its poker clubs. Dallas City Council member Cara Men- delsohn hasn’t read Wu’s bill yet. She has, however, said she doesn’t recognize the gray area poker clubs say allows them to operate. Her stance has been that if Texans want to be able to legally gamble, they should take it Oscar Sánchez Photography State Rep. Gene Wu filed a bill that could shut down poker rooms in Texas. Unfair Park from p4
