SHAWN SHEIKHAN FACES DEPORTATION

Sheikhan Faces Deportation
Hearing Over 1995 Conviction

September 20, 2007
PokerNews Staff

A breaking report in today's Las Vegas
Review-Journal details a pending
deportation hearing for Las Vegas
high-stakes regular Shahram "Shawn"
Sheikhan, based on a decade-old
misdemeanor conviction in a California
case.

Sheikhan, an Iranian citizen who
immigrated to the U.S. in 1983,
has an American-born wife, and
maintains full legal resident status,
received five years of probation
and served nine months in jail after
the 1995 conviction for 'sexual battery
and annoyance or molestation of a
child,' according to the LVRJ report.

Immigration officials arrested
Sheikhan August 30th, holding him
for more than a week before releasing
him after Sheikhan posted a $10,000 bond.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement spokesperson, Virginia Kice,
noted in a release that Sheikhan " was
targeted for ICE arrest because of his
criminal history." Kice later added,
"We want to see him removed from the
United States." The arrest was made as
part of ICE's ongoing 'Operation Predator'
program.

Sheikhan first garnered significant
poker-world attention when he made
a deep run in the 2005 WSOP Main Event,
where he served as a verbal sparring
partner for Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow.

He is represented in the current matter
by noted Vegas attorney David Chesnoff,
who received high poker visibility after
representing Bruce Crispin Leyser in
Leyser's dispute with 2006 WSOP ME
winner Jamie Gold.

Regarding the Sheikhan matter,
Chesnoff noted, "We're going to do
everything in our power to prevent this,"
and also raised the possibility that Sheikhan
may have received inadequate counsel
in the 1995 case.