US Nabs Web Gambling Agents (BetTheDuck.com.)

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=17758&hed=US+Nabs+Web+Gambling+Agents

US Nabs Web Gambling Agents


Law enforcement switches targets from executives to street-level operatives.
July 28, 2006
Eight men are scheduled to appear in court on Friday in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City>Oakland</st1:City>, <st1:State>California</st1:State>, after they were arrested and booked on charges they operated as agents for an online gambling business based in <st1:country-region><st1lace>Costa Rica</st1lace></st1:country-region>.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
<o> </o>
U.S. District Attorney Kevin Ryan said the men collected wagers in the form of cash and checks from bettors in the <st1:country-region><st1lace>United States</st1lace></st1:country-region> on behalf of BetTheDuck.com. <o></o>
<o> </o>
They then handed over the funds to “runners” who transmitted or transferred the money to the gambling firm.<o></o>
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The agents, who were paid a percentage of their bettors’ losses, were charged with operating an illegal gambling business, money-laundering conspiracy, and conspiracy to conduct an illegal gambling business.<o></o>
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Second Dragnet<o></o>
The arrests come on the heels of the high-profile indictments of 11 executives and consultants affiliated with BETonSPORTS and three marketing firms connected with BETonSPORTS (see Feds Deal Web Gambling Blow).

David Carruthers, the chief executive of BETonSPORTS, which has some of its operations in <st1:country-region><st1lace>Costa Rica</st1lace></st1:country-region>, was arrested 12 days ago.<o></o>
<o> </o>
Unlike the BETonSPORTS indictment, which targeted executives of BetOnSPORTS and its marketing partners, the indictments issued in the Bay Area of Northern California focus on street-level, independent agents. <o></o>
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Internal Revenue Service and other federal agents arrested Jenaro R. Mejias, Tony Ferretti, Dallas Affolter, Houshang Pourmohamad, Ed Attanasio, David Volkman, Norm Folsy, and Ray Vargas. All except Mr. Mejias, who is from <st1:State><st1lace>Nevada</st1lace></st1:State>, are from the San Francisco Bay Area.<o></o>
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Each count in the complaint carries a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and three years’ supervised release. <o></o>
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In addition, the complaint charges the defendants with conspiracy to launder money. Each count carries a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment, a $500,000 fine, and five years’ supervised release. <o></o>
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BetTheDuck, which takes sports bets both online and by phone, did not address the arrests on its spartan, business-only web site. Calls to the company were not returned by press time.<o></o>
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Silence at BETonSPORTS<o></o>
Meanwhile after a relative outburst on Wednesday when it fired its chief executive and chided the British press for inaccuracies, BETonSPORTS management has gone back into its self-imposed hibernation (see BETonSPORTS Fires Jailed Chief).<o></o>
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The company is still shuttered, and an extension of a <st1:country-region><st1lace>U.S.</st1lace></st1:country-region> restraining order will probably keep the company site out of commission for at least another week.<o></o>
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But some in the gambling community are angered by the company’s shabby treatment of its customers, many of whom still have deposits with the firm.<o></o>
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“It took them nine days before they said anything, and then they fired their CEO,” said Christopher Costigan, president of Gambling911.com, a gambling research and marketing site. “They need to be concerned about their customers and their shareholders.”<o></o>
<o> </o>
Customers have been told by the BETonSPORTS staff that the site will be operational soon, according to Mr. Costigan, but that level of non-information is insulting in its inadequacy, he said. <o></o>
<o> </o>
“Misleading customers is not going to help your business,” said Mr. Costigan. “They should apologize and inform customers that the situation is out of their hands at this point.”<o></o>
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Contact the writer: CMedford@RedHerring.com<o></o>
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Never heard of bettheduck.com...looks like an agent site that has bookies log in and place customer bets

US Attorney Reports Eight Arrested on Charges of Illegal Gambling & Money Laundering

Ten Search Warrants Executed


SAN FRANCISCO – LAWFUEL - Law News Network - United States Attorney Kevin V. Ryan announced that eight individuals were arrested yesterday for their roles in an illegal gambling and money laundering scheme. According to the criminal complaint, which was unsealed yesterday morning, defendants face charges of conducting an illegal gambling business, money laundering conspiracy, and conspiracy to conduct an illegal gambling business.

The following individuals were charged in the criminal complaint:

Jenaro R. Mejias, aka Bob Mejias, of Carson City, Nevada

Tony Ferretti, of Pacifica

Dallas Affolter, of Pacifica

Houshang Pourmohamad, aka "Hoosh,"of Richmond

Ed Attanasio, of San Francisco

David Volkman, of Belmont

Norm Foisy, of Lafayette

Ray Vargas, of Fremont


These charges are the result of an investigation by IRS-Criminal Investigation.

According to the criminal complaint, players placed bets and wagers via the Internet, at "www.bettheduck.com,"or through a toll-free number with one or more individuals in Costa Rica who were paid to operate the illegal gambling business outside the United States. "Agents" within the United States collected the bets and wagers, in the form of checks and currency, from the players and then delivered them to "runners," who delivered the funds to the gambling business. According to the complaint, the eight individuals charged allegedly worked as "agents" and received a commission based on a percentage of their players’ losses. The betting funds were allegedly transmitted and transferred to a designated beneficiary in Costa Rica, with the intent to promote the carrying on of the illegal gambling business.

The defendants, with the exception of Mr. Mejias and Mr. Foisy, were arrested at their residences. Mr. Mejias was arrested in San Jose, and Mr. Foisy was arrested in Del Mar, in the San Diego area. Six of the defendants made their initial appearance in federal court in Oakland before Magistrate Judge Wayne D. Brazil yesterday and were released on $100,000 bond. Mejias appeared in federal court in San Francisco before Judge Brazil this morning, and Foisy appeared before the duty magistrate judge in San Diego this morning. The defendants’ next scheduled appearance is at 10:00 a.m. on July 28, 2006, in Oakland before Magistrate Judge Brazil for identification of counsel.


The complaint charges the defendants with conspiracy to conduct, finance, manage, and supervise an illegal gambling business in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and conducting, financing, managing, and supervising an illegal gambling business in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1955. Each count carries a maximum statutory penalty of five years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, three years supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. The complaint also charges the defendants with conspiracy to launder money in violation of 18 U.S.C § 1956. Each count carries a maximum statutory penalty of twenty years imprisonment, a $500,000 fine, five years supervised release, and a $100 special assessment.

A criminal complaint contains only allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, Jenaro R. Mejias, Tony Ferretti, Dallas Affolter, Houshang Pourmohamad, Ed Attanasio, David Volkman, Norm Folsy, and Ray Vargas must be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

George Bevan Jr. is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of legal technician Kathleen Glynn.

Further Information:

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at http://www.cand.uscourts.govwww.cand.uscourts.gov.

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Luke Macaulay at (415) 436-6757 or by email at Luke.Macaulay@usdoj.gov.

http://lawfuel.com/show-release.asp?ID=6717

This is out of California guys so a new front for Gambling is now revealed. Since most of the previous indictments came from Missouri's district.

Now that is not good. The whole reason bookies have their business written offshore is so this kind of stuff doesn't happen.

thanks for the info max

These guys wern't living offshore they were nabbed right here in the US...talk about not fearing the Law..

Bay Area residents arrested in gambling probe

Bay City News Service

<!-- begin body-content -->Internal Revenue Service investigators and other federal agents on Wednesday arrested eight men whom authorities suspect were facilitating illegal betting through a Costa Rica-based website, U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan announced.
The arrests took place mostly at residences around the greater Bay Area. According to the criminal indictment, the men arrested were `agents` for a betting website at Bettheduck.com, which also maintained a toll-free number.
Bay Area residents facing felony charges of conducting an illegal gambling business, conspiring to conduct an illegal gambling business, and money laundering, are Tony Ferretti of Pacifica; Dallas Affolter of Pacifica; Houshang `Hoosh` Pourmohamad of Richmond; Ed Attansio of San Francisco; David Volkman of Belmont; Norm Foisy of Lafayette; and Ray Vargas of Fremont.
A Carson City, Nev. man, Jenaro R. `Bob` Meijas, was also arrested.
The illegal gambling charges carry maximum statutory penalties of five years in prison, and also a $250,000 fine. The money laundering charge could result in a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
As `agents,` according to the indictment, the suspects allegedly collected bets and wagers and delivered the currency to `runners` who brought the funds back to the website operator or operators in Costa Rica. The `agents` were paid on a commission based upon a percentage of their players' losses, officials said.
The defendants are set to appear before federal Magistrate Judge Wayne Brazil in Oakland on July 28 at 10 a.m.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/15139177.htm

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How would these guys have been "found out" as to what they were doing??

Brock Landers said:

How would these guys have been "found out" as to what they were doing??

Click to expand...

Good question

normally they catch/stumble across one guy and then get him to introduce a "friend" and he is undercover agent

then they collect evidence over a long period of time

before springing the whole lot of them

thats what they did in 3 financial cases im familar with

Clip Joint said:

Now that is not good. The whole reason bookies have their business written offshore is so this kind of stuff doesn't happen.

Click to expand...

Agreed...this is very bad news.

Max, thanks for keeping the forum updated.

The dog is chasing its tail here. Another simple bookmaking operation impededed. Agents have been getting arrested constantly the last year or so easy.

It hasn't been safe to be an agent for quite a while now. Busting the agents stateside is nothing new, and it's not too hard to find out who the agents are. The only difference is that now everytime there's a bust, the media is going to publicize it, IMO.

"bet the duck"

when I saw this thread title, I thought for a moment Winky got nabbed...

Brock Landers said:

How would these guys have been "found out" as to what they were doing??

Click to expand...

Easy answer: THE MONEY TRAIL.

These guys are not declaring income with the IRS, they are handling all sorts of cash and maybe making occasional bank transactions, and living a very nice lifestyle with no reported income.

The IRS gets suspicious, looks at one of them, sees an expensive car and home, no income, and it all starts to unravel like a ball of string.

Also lots of cash transactions in-bound and out-bound to Costa Rica is a good guess.

Small fish, big pond.