Online Gambling Ring Charges Carry Max 25 Year Sentences
Christopher Costigan
Gambling911.com
March 28, 2007
Seventeen individuals were rounded up overnight and early this morning in connection with what law enforcement officials are calling a $30 million online gambling ring that dealt almost exclusively in sports betting. Among those arrested were two former New York City police officers, an ex-Merrill broker and secretarial coordinator Atlanta-based King & Spalding's New York law firm.
A former Merrill Lynch & Co. broker was arrested on state gambling charges in New York, postponing his federal trial for selling access to trading information broadcast over his firm's office intercom.
Timothy O'Connell, 42, of Carle Place, New York, was one of 17 people charged this morning in connection with an alleged $30 million online sports gambling ring, Kevin Ryan, a spokesman for the Queens District Attorney, told Bloomberg this morning.
“He was a runner,” said Ryan. “He was responsible for soliciting new bettors to the operation, maintaining the relationship with bettors and meeting with bettors to collect gambling losses and pay out winnings.”
O'Connell is one of seven defendants on trial for conspiring to trade on information broadcast over internal “squawk boxes” at top Wall Street firms.
Also arrested this morning were gambling ringleader, John Kinahan, 56, a former New York City police officer who served prison time for protecting drug dealers, according to Ryan. Kinahan works as a manager at City Scapes, a topless club in Queens, one of two sites where the ring was based, Ryan said. It also operated out of a Queens restaurant, he said.
The gambling ring employed the services of 50KSports.com based in Costa Rica. The arrests have major implications for offshore sports betting operations dealing with agents.
Sources close to Gambling911.com first informed us of the impending arrests last night. Today we were told that this is going to expand into a much larger investigation.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said our source.
Kinahan's wife, Virginia, 56, is charged in the indictment as the bookkeeper and day-to-day manager of the operation. She's listed as the owner of City Scapes.
Ms. Kinahan is also a Secretarial Coordinator for the law office of King & Spalding in New York City where she supervises secretaries on one entire floor. She is known to have been working at the firm this Monday and has been employed with King & Spalding since 2004.
Philip Buckles, 59, a former New York police detective in the Organized Crime division, was also named in the indictment.
Other alleged runners charged in the case include a U.S. postal worker who placed bets for bosses at a New York City post office and a city sanitation worker, according to Ryan.
The ring accepted wagers on a broad range of professional sporting events including horse-racing, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, golf and tennis, Brown said in the statement.
The New York State Police has also been working this case.
The 17 defendants conspired to run the illegal gambling operation from May 1, 2006 until March 22, 2007, according to the indictment.
"When it comes to Internet sports gambling rings operating in Queens County, all bets are off," Brown said. "My office has zero tolerance for such illegal activity."
Using court-authorized electronic eavesdropping, investigators in the case intercepted nearly 50,000 conversations from six different telephones, Brown said.
While the case involves web gambling, the matter centers more on credit betting and utilization of agents/runners within the United States.
In another major case from late last year, James Giordano and over a dozen other individuals were arrested for allegedly running an illegal online gambling enterprise, most of which was operated within the United States.
Defendants in this case are "squawking like canaries on crack" a source told Gambling911.com, and they all appear to be implicating a major online gambling website that no longer takes bets within the United States.
Christopher Costigan
Gambling911.com
March 28, 2007
Seventeen individuals were rounded up overnight and early this morning in connection with what law enforcement officials are calling a $30 million online gambling ring that dealt almost exclusively in sports betting. Among those arrested were two former New York City police officers, an ex-Merrill broker and secretarial coordinator Atlanta-based King & Spalding's New York law firm.
A former Merrill Lynch & Co. broker was arrested on state gambling charges in New York, postponing his federal trial for selling access to trading information broadcast over his firm's office intercom.
Timothy O'Connell, 42, of Carle Place, New York, was one of 17 people charged this morning in connection with an alleged $30 million online sports gambling ring, Kevin Ryan, a spokesman for the Queens District Attorney, told Bloomberg this morning.
“He was a runner,” said Ryan. “He was responsible for soliciting new bettors to the operation, maintaining the relationship with bettors and meeting with bettors to collect gambling losses and pay out winnings.”
O'Connell is one of seven defendants on trial for conspiring to trade on information broadcast over internal “squawk boxes” at top Wall Street firms.
Also arrested this morning were gambling ringleader, John Kinahan, 56, a former New York City police officer who served prison time for protecting drug dealers, according to Ryan. Kinahan works as a manager at City Scapes, a topless club in Queens, one of two sites where the ring was based, Ryan said. It also operated out of a Queens restaurant, he said.
The gambling ring employed the services of 50KSports.com based in Costa Rica. The arrests have major implications for offshore sports betting operations dealing with agents.
Sources close to Gambling911.com first informed us of the impending arrests last night. Today we were told that this is going to expand into a much larger investigation.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said our source.
Kinahan's wife, Virginia, 56, is charged in the indictment as the bookkeeper and day-to-day manager of the operation. She's listed as the owner of City Scapes.
Ms. Kinahan is also a Secretarial Coordinator for the law office of King & Spalding in New York City where she supervises secretaries on one entire floor. She is known to have been working at the firm this Monday and has been employed with King & Spalding since 2004.
Philip Buckles, 59, a former New York police detective in the Organized Crime division, was also named in the indictment.
Other alleged runners charged in the case include a U.S. postal worker who placed bets for bosses at a New York City post office and a city sanitation worker, according to Ryan.
The ring accepted wagers on a broad range of professional sporting events including horse-racing, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, golf and tennis, Brown said in the statement.
The New York State Police has also been working this case.
The 17 defendants conspired to run the illegal gambling operation from May 1, 2006 until March 22, 2007, according to the indictment.
"When it comes to Internet sports gambling rings operating in Queens County, all bets are off," Brown said. "My office has zero tolerance for such illegal activity."
Using court-authorized electronic eavesdropping, investigators in the case intercepted nearly 50,000 conversations from six different telephones, Brown said.
While the case involves web gambling, the matter centers more on credit betting and utilization of agents/runners within the United States.
In another major case from late last year, James Giordano and over a dozen other individuals were arrested for allegedly running an illegal online gambling enterprise, most of which was operated within the United States.
Defendants in this case are "squawking like canaries on crack" a source told Gambling911.com, and they all appear to be implicating a major online gambling website that no longer takes bets within the United States.