Judge also orders men to pay $250,000 each for supplying machines to Fleas.
EASTON -- Friends and family members couldn't understand why Habouk "Boots" Shumar and Anthony Hanni should be sent to prison and fined $250,000 each after making so many charitable contributions in the area.
A prosecutor said their punishments will help end the "culture of complacency" that allowed illegal gambling to flourish for years at Easton's Order of Fleas and other area social clubs.
U.S. District Court Judge Franklin S. Van Antwerpen on Thursday sent Shumar to federal prison for two years and nine months and Hanni away for two years.
Shumar, 55, of Bethlehem Township, and Hanni, 59, of Easton, provided video gambling machines to the Fleas club that generated $100 million in revenue over 10 years.
Van Antwerpen sent them away immediately.
After imposing the sentences, the judge asked some 30 friends and family members to leave the courtroom. When they became boisterous and tearful, he banged his gavel to silence them.
"Can't we at least say goodbye?" said one woman. "Oh my God! Why? I can't believe it."
Hanni and Shumar seemed resigned to their fates. Each made a brief statement to the judge.
"I'm very sorry this all happened," Shumar said. "I just want to pay my fine, do my time and get on with my life."
"I apologize for any inconvenience I have caused the court," Hanni said. "I totally accept responsibility."
Each man handed over a $500,000 forfeiture check to the government prior to Thursday's sentencing hearing. This represents almost all the cash available to each man, according to their attorneys, but each owns property and other assets that bring their net worth to more than $2 million each.
The men didn't hoard all their earnings. They gave generously of their money and their time, according to Anthony Koury, the Notre Dame High School athletic director and deacon at Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church in Easton.
"They have not withheld their support any time I asked them," Koury said.
"It's a shame to me it's all turned out the way it has," said Easton native and Philadelphia attorney George Marion. "It seems so surreal and unnecessary. They seem like the kind of guys who wouldn't be in this situation."
"They are men of character and integrity," said former Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. "They worked hard to get where they are and they never turned their back on the community."
Like Koury, Panto believes the illegal gambling Hanni and Shumar provided had no negative impact on the community. When asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Goldman whether he and the police during his administration knew about gambling at the club, Panto replied that everyone knew there was illegal gambling at the Fleas club.
Panto said he was a club member who would stop in for food but never gambled there.
Panto said he can't understand why the state can sell lottery tickets to poor widows but social clubs cannot provide poker machines to members, where gambling can be more "controlled" than it can through a lottery or casino.
"I find it ironic and hypocritical that the government of Pennsylvania has legalized some gambling but not all gambling," Panto said.
Goldman said Panto and community leaders like him are part of a "culture of complacency" that allows people such as Hanni and Shumar to become millionaires off working-class men who can't stop themselves from gambling away their hard-earned cash.
Hanni and Shumar's support of the sick, elderly and children does not minimize the harm they caused the community, Goldman said.
"These men became wealthy, very wealthy, thwarting the law," Goldman said. "People can be very generous with their time and money when all you do during the day is collect money from illegal gambling machines."
Hanni and Shumar had opportunities to stop breaking the law after multiple gambling-related convictions. In each case, each man paid fines, spent minimal time on probation or in prison, and resumed the business, Goldman said.
"It's the price of doing business. That mentality has to stop," Goldman said.
After years of running their illegal gambling business, each man purchased a suburban home, a Myrtle Beach condominium, bankrolled hundreds of thousands of dollars and had no debt.
In recent years, Shumar purchased a Palmer Township beer distributorship worth about $500,000. He paid cash, Goldman said.
The testimonials from their friends and attorneys did not persuade Van Antwerpen to delay Hanni and Shumar's departure to prison. Attorney Marc Neff asked the judge to defer the date they report to prevent them from spending about two weeks at a processing center for federal prisoners in Philadelphia, a place Neff called "the dungeon."
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EASTON -- Friends and family members couldn't understand why Habouk "Boots" Shumar and Anthony Hanni should be sent to prison and fined $250,000 each after making so many charitable contributions in the area.
A prosecutor said their punishments will help end the "culture of complacency" that allowed illegal gambling to flourish for years at Easton's Order of Fleas and other area social clubs.
U.S. District Court Judge Franklin S. Van Antwerpen on Thursday sent Shumar to federal prison for two years and nine months and Hanni away for two years.
Shumar, 55, of Bethlehem Township, and Hanni, 59, of Easton, provided video gambling machines to the Fleas club that generated $100 million in revenue over 10 years.
Van Antwerpen sent them away immediately.
After imposing the sentences, the judge asked some 30 friends and family members to leave the courtroom. When they became boisterous and tearful, he banged his gavel to silence them.
"Can't we at least say goodbye?" said one woman. "Oh my God! Why? I can't believe it."
Hanni and Shumar seemed resigned to their fates. Each made a brief statement to the judge.
"I'm very sorry this all happened," Shumar said. "I just want to pay my fine, do my time and get on with my life."
"I apologize for any inconvenience I have caused the court," Hanni said. "I totally accept responsibility."
Each man handed over a $500,000 forfeiture check to the government prior to Thursday's sentencing hearing. This represents almost all the cash available to each man, according to their attorneys, but each owns property and other assets that bring their net worth to more than $2 million each.
The men didn't hoard all their earnings. They gave generously of their money and their time, according to Anthony Koury, the Notre Dame High School athletic director and deacon at Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church in Easton.
"They have not withheld their support any time I asked them," Koury said.
"It's a shame to me it's all turned out the way it has," said Easton native and Philadelphia attorney George Marion. "It seems so surreal and unnecessary. They seem like the kind of guys who wouldn't be in this situation."
"They are men of character and integrity," said former Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. "They worked hard to get where they are and they never turned their back on the community."
Like Koury, Panto believes the illegal gambling Hanni and Shumar provided had no negative impact on the community. When asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Goldman whether he and the police during his administration knew about gambling at the club, Panto replied that everyone knew there was illegal gambling at the Fleas club.
Panto said he was a club member who would stop in for food but never gambled there.
Panto said he can't understand why the state can sell lottery tickets to poor widows but social clubs cannot provide poker machines to members, where gambling can be more "controlled" than it can through a lottery or casino.
"I find it ironic and hypocritical that the government of Pennsylvania has legalized some gambling but not all gambling," Panto said.
Goldman said Panto and community leaders like him are part of a "culture of complacency" that allows people such as Hanni and Shumar to become millionaires off working-class men who can't stop themselves from gambling away their hard-earned cash.
Hanni and Shumar's support of the sick, elderly and children does not minimize the harm they caused the community, Goldman said.
"These men became wealthy, very wealthy, thwarting the law," Goldman said. "People can be very generous with their time and money when all you do during the day is collect money from illegal gambling machines."
Hanni and Shumar had opportunities to stop breaking the law after multiple gambling-related convictions. In each case, each man paid fines, spent minimal time on probation or in prison, and resumed the business, Goldman said.
"It's the price of doing business. That mentality has to stop," Goldman said.
After years of running their illegal gambling business, each man purchased a suburban home, a Myrtle Beach condominium, bankrolled hundreds of thousands of dollars and had no debt.
In recent years, Shumar purchased a Palmer Township beer distributorship worth about $500,000. He paid cash, Goldman said.
The testimonials from their friends and attorneys did not persuade Van Antwerpen to delay Hanni and Shumar's departure to prison. Attorney Marc Neff asked the judge to defer the date they report to prevent them from spending about two weeks at a processing center for federal prisoners in Philadelphia, a place Neff called "the dungeon."
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