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Three Online Sports Betting Rings Busted

Thirty-eight suspects -- including three NYC employees -- have been arrested across the country for their alleged involvement in two online sports betting enterprises dubbed Crown Sports I and Crown Sports II, repectively, following a three-year investigation by the NYPD's organized crime bureau and the Queens District Attorney's Office as reported by The Associated Press:
Prosecutors said Robert Baselice and Charles Cicalo, both from Staten Island, worked as bookmakers on crownsports.com and jazzsports.com, employing agents and other people to collect and disburse money. The second indictment charges Robert Ackrish, a sanitation worker, and his father, Lewis, both from New York, with running a second ring that also used some of the same Web sites.
According to the press release by Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown:
The enterprises allegedly handled thousands of wagers each month that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in monthly gross revenue or approximately $178 million between July 2007 and March 2010. It is alleged to have relied on modern technology to generate its criminal proceeds, including toll-free telephone numbers and five known gambling websites – crownsports.com; jazzsports.com; 5Dimes.com; bigonsports.com; and betcris.com – which, in effect, served as computerized wire rooms through which the enterprises conducted much of its illegal gambling activity. District Attorney Brown said that law enforcement crackdowns over the years on traditional mob run wire rooms have led to an increased use by illegal gambling rings of offshore gambling websites where action is available around the clock. Bettors can click on an offshore gambling website over the Internet and be assigned individual login codes and passwords. Bettors’ win-loss amounts are maintained by the websites, which charge bookmakers for the service. These gambling websites typically store their information on computer servers outside the United States – often in such Central American countries as Costa Rica – and “bounce” their data through a series of server nodes in efforts to evade law enforcement detection through traditional methods.
With respect to the indictment on the first enterprise ("Crown Sports I"), the press release states:
Robert Baselice was a bookmaker and, as such, one of the bosses of the enterprise who controlled and oversaw the entire operation and profited from each criminal pursuit by a member of the enterprise. Baselice allegedly ran his operation through the crownsports.com website and employed alleged "money collectors" Joseph Fredette and Michael Guarino to distribute, deliver and transfer gambling proceeds between members of the organization for him. Another alleged bookmaker who used the crownsports.com website was Charles Cicalo, who also allegedly utilized the jazzsports.com website. It is alleged that Cicalo employed a number of "super agents" – Anthony Vollaro, Nicholas Calabrese and his son, Joseph Calabrese, and Carmine Malara and his son, Frank Malara – who had several subordinate agents reporting directly to them and "agents" – Michael Labetti (a DOT employee), Emil Ganzerla, Matthew Fopeano (a FDNY employee) and Tito Grenga – who were allegedly responsible for soliciting new bettors to the organization, maintaining existing bettor relationships and meeting with bettors to collect gambling losses and payout winnings. Another of Cicalo's super agents allegedly was Frank Rupolo, who lived in Florida and through whom Cicalo allegedly directed gambling proceeds from his organization to Gina Zelinka, an alleged money collector for Michael Flynn III, who is charged with serving as both a bookmaker and bank. The indictment additionally alleges that Flynn, who operated through the betcris.com website, directed the flow of gambling proceeds in and around the United States via alleged money collectors/distributors – such as David Carazo who collected and distributed gambling proceeds for Flynn in Louisiana and surrounding states and Zelinka and Michael Baevitz, who collected and distributed large amount of gambling proceeds for Flynn in Florida, including to other alleged money collectors – such as Guillermo Canales, Marcel Grasso and Nicholas Coon. Super agents allegedly employed by Flynn included Drew Casen and Harry Tudor who were also partners. Casen operated in Las Vegas and Tudor operated in Florida. They also allegedly operated under Josef Monro, a super agent living in Michigan. It is further alleged that Flynn often transferred accounts from website to website to accommodate bookkeepers and agents who utilized the websites, while charging them a percentage for the transfers.
And with respect to the indictment on the second enterprise ("Crown Sports II"), the press release states:

Robert Ackrish, a sanitation worker, and his father, Lewis Ackrish, were bookmakers and partners who utilized the crownsports.com website, along with their super agents, Frank Sapienza, Walter Ghirlando, John Campbell, and agents Wen Han Chen, Vincent Messina, Robert McAllister, Francis Stanford, Frank Campanello. George Beglin and Ralph Bauer were allegedly money collectors.

Queens, NY District Attorney's Press Release
Names, Photos, and Alleged Roles Of Indicted Defendants (Crown Sports I)
Names, Photos, and Alleged Roles Of Indicted Defendants (Crown Sports II)
Meanwhile, in Louisiana, the feds have arrested six individuals, including William Bryant III, the premium sales manager for the NBA's New Orleans Hornets, pursuant to a criminal complaint for allegedly "running a gambling business through a Costa Rican-based offshore betting service" as reported by Michelle Hunter for The Times-Picayune:
Ashley Perry, 33, and Shane Muscarello, 37, both of Metairie; William Bryant III, 39, and Craig Goodwin, 49, both of Kenner; David Theriot, 45, of Covington; and David Carazo, 40 of Mandeville, were formerly charged Wednesday with the operation of an illegal gambling business, according to U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office. * * * The defendants are accused of taking bets on various sporting events - baseball, football and horseracing - and running an online casino using the website www.seeyouontop.com, according to court records. The group, directed and supervised by Perry and Muscarello, made monthly payments of $35,000 to $47,000 to the Costa Rican betting service, which maintained the website and employed staffers to answer telephone calls and accept bets, records said. * * * Perry and Muscarello directed things, Goodwin was described as a runner who recruited gamblers, collected money and arranged for bettors to get internet accounts and passwords, according to court records. Theriot was seen meeting often with Perry, handling paperwork and money. Bryant was another runner who collected wagers. Perry and Muscarello are accused of traveling to Costa Rica in 2006 and 2007 to personally drop off payments to the service's managers. But authorities say that it was Carazo who later begin representing the Costa-Rican betting service as money courier, court records said. Investigators later learned that law enforcement officials probing offshore betting in New York had identified Carazo as the Gulf-Coast-area courier for the organization, making pick-ups and delivering payoffs in Louisiana and Alabama.
Affidavit In Support Of Criminal Complaint


Posted at 05:08 PM in Anthony Vollaro, Ashley Perry, Carmine Malara, Charles Cicalo, Craig Goodwin, crownsports.com, David Carazo, David Theriot, Drew Casen, Emil Ganzerla, Enterprise Corruption, Francis Stanford, Frank Campanello, Frank Malara, Frank Rupolo, Frank Sapienza, Gambling, George Beglin, Gina Zelinka, Guillermo Canales, Harry Tudor, jazzsports.com, John Campbell, Josef Monro, Joseph Calabrese, Joseph Fredette, Lewis Ackrish, Marcel Grasso, Matthew Fopeano, Michael Baevitz, Michael Flynn III, Michael Guarino, Michael Labetti, Mitchell Baevitz, Money Laundering, Nicholas Calabrese, Nicholas Coon, Ralph Bauer, Robert Ackrish, Robert Baselice, Robert McAllister, Shane Muscarello, Tito Grenga, Vincent Messina, Walter Ghirlando, Wen Han Chen, William Bryant III | Permalink