AG links track to illegal overseas gambling

[clevfan]

AG links track to illegal overseas gambling

By JOHN DiSTASO
Senior Political Reporter
The Union Leader
March 12


CONCORD — Despite its owners' claims to the contrary, Lakes Region Greyhound Park was "intimately connected" to a gambling enterprise that illegally transferred high-dollar wagers to an overseas betting operation by wire, the state attorney general says.

The racetrack's owners yesterday disputed that and several other charges by Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, questioning "what motivation exists to rush to judgment" about whether the track's racing license should be revoked.

Ayotte's report to the state Pari-Mutuel Commission, supporting her request that the Belmont facility lose its license, was made public yesterday as the commission formally ordered a hearing on the matter and set a pre-hearing conference for March 28.

The report says the track's partners are part-owners of the International Players Association, which allegedly conducted an illegal gambling business at the track using track employees, track telephones and perhaps even track money as capital for its start-up.

IPA violated a federal law outlawing the interstate or foreign wire transmission of bets or wagers, Ayotte charges.

Her report says IPA's purpose was to refer U.S. gamblers to a betting firm called Euro Off-Track located on the Isle of Man in the British Isles. IPA was to receive commissions on the pari-mutuel bets made by U.S. clients with Euro Off-Track.

Ayotte's report says track general partner Allen E. Hart, who is also an IPA part-owner, told investigators under oath that IPA did not directly receive or transfer bets between bettors and IPA. But the report alleges otherwise.

"IPA would receive money from its customers and then forwarded that money to Euro Off-Track in order to fund the customers' accounts," it says. "IPA also forwarded money to their customers that it received from Euro Off-Track. IPA forwarded this money to its customers by mail and by wire transfers."

Track defense
Lakes Region says Ayotte's legal analysis is wrong. In a statement, it cited a federal law allowing "information assisting in the placing" of legal bets to be transferred between states or countries. The track is expected to cite a federal appeals court ruling that Congress "did not intend to criminalize acts that neither the affected states nor Congress itself deemed criminal in nature."

Federal law "provides for and allows for the type of wagering which IPA and its customers were engaged in," Lakes Region said.

But Ayotte's report says track and IPA officials last May "directed a (track) employee to wire more than $300,000 to IPA customers in New York. IPA had received this money from Euro Off-Track."

Those IPA officials, Richard Hart and Jonathan Broome, were among 17 people indicted in January as part of an alleged massive illegal gambling conspiracy. All pleaded innocent.

Although Allan Hart has said the track and IPA were separate operations, Ayotte's report alleges otherwise.

It says he and track partner Vincent DiCesare of Massachusetts, "were the owners of IPA along with Richard Hart. (Richard) Hart and Broome were general manager and assistant general manager at Lakes Region Greyhound Park."

The formation of IPA was discussed at track management meetings and the track "may have provided the initial capital so IPA could begin conducting business," the report says.

The report says Richard Hart and Broome received telephone calls regarding IPA business at the track. It says Broome's wife "maintained accounting records and did other financial business for IPA" while working at the track, and other track employees handled IPA mail, received IPA calls and did "other ministerial tasks" for IPA.

AG: track tried to hide
Ayotte's office also says track officials tried to hide the fact that Richard Hart and his two brothers began working at the track in the early and mid-1990s after being convicted of gambling-related crimes in Massachusetts.

A New Hampshire law bans a racetrack from employing anyone who has been convicted of violating any gambling-related state or federal law within 10 years prior to the application for employment.

The report says that in 1988, Richard and Kenneth Hart each pled guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to violate Massachusetts gambling laws.

Robert Hart, the report says, pleaded guilty to criminal usury in 1991, also in Massachusetts. The report says that "this crime is somehow related to gambling."

Ayotte's report concludes that the three brothers are part-owners of the track but that they, with other owners' help, tried to hide their ownership shares behind a trust set up in their mother's name.

It says Kenneth Hart testified in a civil suit that Allan Hart and DiCesare "asked that Joan Hart be established as owner of record for Richard, Robert and Kenneth because of potential licensing problems related to Richard, Robert and Kenneth's criminal records."

Denial
Allan Hart, their uncle, denies the charge, the report says.

The report says a commission-requested background check of Richard, Robert and Kenneth Hart and their wives last year "did not reveal any criminal convictions."

The report also says the commission "may draw adverse inferences against" track 40 percent owner DiCesare because he "would not answer any questions posed to him in this investigation," choosing instead to assert his right not to incriminate himself. But Lakes Region says Ayotte's claim that her office did not receive "full cooperation" from the track "is a distortion of the facts."

[dinque]

so a track was taking action,sending it to a rebate place,getting a rebate,sharing the rebate with its customers and keeping a little for itself while running a few dog races as a sideshow?i think that is what i get from this article as i am too tired to do more then skim it.Am i right?