Final arrest made 13 years after Sports Offshore illegal gambling charge

Authorities in the United States have finally arrested a man charged more than a decade ago for his participation in Sports Offshore, a large-scale illegal online gambling business based in Antigua.

Richard Sullivan, 73, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston in August 2010 with racketeering (RICO), operating an illegal gambling business, transmission of wagering information, money laundering and interstate travel in aid of racketeering.

Thirteen years later he was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York earlier this month, while proceeding through customs upon his return to the US from Antigua.

Sullivan was arraigned in the Eastern District of New York and will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.

The prosecution marked one of the first times that individuals were charged with violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), and the first in Massachusetts.

Sullivan and his co-defendants are charged with over 75 counts of engaging in US banking transactions involving US-based gamblers to pay gambling debts owed to Sports Offshore.

According to the indictment, Sullivan and his three co-conspirators – Todd Lyons, Robert Eremian and Daniel Eremian – operated Sports Offshore, an online gambling site licensed in Antigua and operating in the United States.

Sports Offshore used an internet site and toll-free telephone lines registered in Antigua to service US customers. The ring also allegedly employed approximately 50 gambling agents in the US, who solicited hundreds of customers and collected gambling debts, forwarding the illegal gambling proceeds to Antigua.

To conceal the conspiracy, Sullivan and his co-conspirators allegedly created numerous fictitious entities with no legitimate business purpose to launder the proceeds so that authorities could not detect US-based financial transactions involving Sports Offshore.

Sullivan allegedly managed the daily activities of Sports Offshore at its office in St. John’s, Antigua. In that capacity, Sullivan allegedly supervised approximately 30-50 employees who accepted wagers from customers in the US that were placed over the telephone and the internet.

Sullivan is said to have directed collection activities regarding customers and agents located in the US who owed money to Sports Offshore, and was responsible for a group of Massachusetts customers who gambled with Sports Offshore, earning him commissions on the losses incurred by those customers.

It is further alleged that Sullivan utilized individuals who resided in Massachusetts to collect money from his Massachusetts customers.

In total, Sullivan and his co-conspirators allegedly collected over $22 million for Sports Offshore through the online gambling operation and laundered more than $10 million in checks and wire transfers.

In December 2011, Lyons and Daniel Eremian were convicted following a five-week trial for their roles in the conspiracy.

Lyons was sentenced to four years in prison, one year of supervised release, and was ordered to forfeit $24.6 million. Daniel Eremian was sentenced to three years in prison, one year of supervised release, and was ordered to forfeit $7.7 million.