Illegal gambling: bookmakers with alleged Mafia connections guilty
A bookmaker with alleged Mafia connections pleaded guilty to illegal gambling in a district court in the US state of Illinois on Wednesday. Now the 66-year-old Gregory Emmett Paloian faces up to three years in prison.
The trial of Paloian, who had been accused of collaborating with Mafia members in an earlier criminal case, had opened in October. According to the US Attorney's Office, the man ran an illegal betting business in the cities of Chicago, Elmwood Park and Melrose Park from 2015 to 2019.
As reported by the Chicago Sun, citing court documents, Paloian accepted bets on football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey games. In addition, he arranged bets on college sporting events.
A retiree was sentenced in Chicago for illegal gambling in October. The 85-year-old Eugene “Geno” Del Giudice had acted as a money messenger for an illegal gambling ring and received three months house arrest for it.
Paloian admits to illegal gambling
According to the Chicago Tribune, Paloian admitted illegal betting in a telephone hearing with Judge Joan Lefkow. In a matter-of-fact tone, he said:
I took bets from various friends and people I knew and paid or collected them based on the outcome of the games.
According to information from the public prosecutor's office, however, the scope of Paloian's acts was more extensive. In total, Paloian worked with five other people who were responsible, among other things, to attract new players. With their help, more than 2,000 US dollars were raised daily. However, no taxes were paid to the tax authorities.
In the course of the investigation, it became clear that the convicted person evaded taxes amounting to almost 200,000 US dollars. In the tax return for 2016 alone, Paloian stated that he had generated a loss of more than 77,000 US dollars through private transactions. In fact, his earnings would have been at least $ 95,220.
Whether and how long Paloian has to go to prison for his actions will be decided on April 7, 2020. Judge Lefkow has scheduled the pronouncement of the verdict on that day.