UIGEA guilty verdict hits America
Daniel Eremian, brother-in-law to a prolific United States Congressman has been charged in federal court with multiple counts of racketeering and illegal gambling, and is one of the first to be convicted as such under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006.
Mr Eremian is the 61 year old brother-in-law of John Tierney, an eight-term US Representative. He was found guilty in a US District Court in Boston, Massachusetts this Monday. He was charged with numerous crimes including racketeering in relation to a gambling operation he ran under the guise of an online casino based within Antigua, one of the Caribbean islands.
Eremian’s full list of convictions include illegal gambling, racketeering conspiracy, racketeering, and a plethora of other related charges. Co-defendant Todd Lyons has now gone down in history as the first person in history to be convinced under the UIGEA. Todd pleaded guilty to multiple counts of illegal gambling in the USA and racketeering.
Prosecutors are claiming that Eremian and Robert, his brother, ran the offshore sports gambling website from the island of Antigua and accepted wagers from US gamblers illegally. It has been revealed by he government that Lyons was just one many agents that took part in the effort to collect millions of dollars between 1998 to 2006.
US Attorney Carmen Ortiz declared that “Today’s convictions should serve as a message to those involved with illegal gambling schemes that the government will apply the full weight of its resources to identify, investigate and prosecute individuals who seek to profit from offshore gambling,” when questioned in court on Monday. Adding “we are satisfied with the verdict, as it is consistent with the evidence put forward in this case.”
Although Eremian and Lyons were convicted of far worse charges, they were acquitted of numerous counts of money laundering. It has also been revealed that Eremian was found to be not guilty of a number of counts of acceptance of financial instruments for unlawful Internet gambling, which were brought under UIGEA.