Online sportsbetting one of the charges in massive NY sweep

[jetset]

ONLINE SPORTS BETTING NAMED IN GAMBINO PROBE

Alleged Mafia family at the centre of massive enforcement swoop in New Jersey

More than 62 people, including leading members of an organised crime family, have been named in a U.S. indictment following a massive police swoop in New York this week. And online sportsbetting is alleged to be among the range of criminal charges that include some of the most serious drug, violence and loan-sharking felonies on the books.

The Gambino family, long associated with organised crime, is at the centre of the numerous charges laid by the U.S. Attorney's office for the region.

Authorities carried out one of the largest Mafia takedowns in recent memory, reports MSNBC, scooping up dozens of reputed Gambino members and charging them with gangland crimes spanning three decades.

The federal indictment in Brooklyn named 62 people, including the three highest-ranking members of the Gambino clan and the brother and nephew of the late John Gotti, the notorious boss who ran the family in its heyday.

State prosecutors separately charged 26 others with running a gambling ring that took nearly $10 million in bets on professional and college sports.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Thursday that the Gambinos' sports book operation substituted "the traditional wire room and street corner bookie who penciled in wagers in a little black book with offshore based Internet Web sites and toll-free numbers through which they were able to manage numerous gambling accounts."

He did not identify the four Costa Rican websites involved, but claimed these were being used in conjunction with toll free phone numbers and illegal wire rooms to allow illegal gambling activity. The gambling brought in over $10 million to the Gambino family in two years, Brown added.

The New York raids coincided with an Italian operation, code-named "Old Bridge" and centered on the Sicilian capital of Palermo, targeting Mafia figures who were strengthening contacts between mob groups in Italy and the United States.

Authorities said the investigations, though technically unconnected, signaled an international attempt to disrupt Sicilian ties to the Gambino family, which has been decimated by prosecutions since family head John Gotti's highly publicised prosecution and fall. Gotti was sentenced to life in prison in 1992, and died in 2002.

The U.S. investigation ensnared whatever members of the Gambino hierarchy were still at liberty and will bring "closure to crimes from the past," U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell said, including drug trafficking, robberies and other crimes dating to the 1970s.

The probe's scope shows the mob "still exists in the city and the state of New York," said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. "We like to think that it's a vestige of the past. It's not."

Among the 29 people arrested or sought in Italy were members of clans linked to Salvatore Lo Piccolo, the Sicilian Mafia boss arrested in November, Italian officials said. "We have cut short a dangerous connection that would have been the basis for new illegal trafficking," Palermo Prosecutor Francesco Messineo said.

When Lo Piccolo was arrested, investigators warned that as part of his attempt to become the Cosa Nostra's next "boss of bosses," he had been working to mend ties with U.S.-Italian clans such as the Gambinos and the Inzerillos.

[jetset]

It is now understood that two of the websites involved are betallsports.com and betoffshore.net.

[mush]

thanks for the article. i'm very interested to see how this develops b/c it could be the first case to test a lot of the legal questions we've all been throwing around. the article never mentioned how the funds were transferred between the parties, even though it did use the phrase "wire room," but that's just where they were placing telephone calls and not wiring funds. unless they were flying suitcases of money to each other, there was some type of financial institution involved. it will be interesting to see who that turns out to be. i can only assume it couldn't be a us corp or they would have been taken down at the same time for violation of the wire fraud act.

also, the article is very vague on the actual charges, laws and jurisdictions involved. it says there were some federal and some state crimes, but not really the breakdown. it also seems to imply that some of the federal charges were "online sportsbetting" but never confirms that. it seems the state charges involving gambling that are discussed in more detail are simply running an illegal gambling operation, nothing to do with the bets they placed with the online sites, even though it is written in a way to sort of imply that their charges involved this.

very interesting.....thanks again.......i'm going to see if i can get a copy of the idictments to see exactly what they say. i will be following this story very closely for sure.

[mush]

i have the federal indictment if anyone else cares to see it. its too long to post obviously and i can't host it, but i can email it.

[jetset]

Maybe summarise the charges laid here for us, Mush - that would be interesting because my feel is that this bust involves crimes from years back and that the online sportsbetting charges are but a small proportion of the many other crimes being laid at the door of the 62 + accuseds.

I believe 20 - 26 of those picked up will face the sportsbetting charges.

[mush]

Maybe summarise the charges laid here for us, Mush - that would be interesting because my feel is that this bust involves crimes from years back and that the online sportsbetting charges are but a small proportion of the many other crimes being laid at the door of the 62 + accuseds.

I believe 20 - 26 of those picked up will face the sportsbetting charges.

i'll do even better......there is a link to the indictment in this article, so everyone can see it. i'm not sure why i didn't just find one earlier to post. i have access to federal filings, so i just pulled up a copy w/o looking for any others. its 170 pages and i haven't made it too far yet, but the list of defendents alone looks like the cast of the sopranos, so it should be pretty good reading.