Former boss of Antigua-based Sports Off Shore to be sentenced Thursday

Prosecutors in Eremian case want sufficient punishment to deter other offshore gambing businesses.

BOSTON, USA, Wednesday June 27, 2012 – In a high-profile case that has attracted the attention of the online gaming world, prosecutors are asking a judge to “bare the teeth” of federal laws against online betting by locking up the brother-in-law of US Representative John Tierney (D-Salem) for no less than four years when she sentences him tomorrow.

The unprecedented case of Antigua-based Sports Off Shore and its mastermind Daniel Eremian is the first of its kind to go to trial since the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.

“The online gaming world has been watching the case at bar and the court’s sentence must reflect that criminal organizations cannot hide in offshore havens and commit crimes in the United States,” prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum.

 “If the court’s sentence does not provide sufficient punishment, other offshore gambling businesses may take it as a signal that US laws have no teeth and that it is worth the risk to conduct their business in the United States.”

Eremian, 62, of Boca Raton, Florida, the brother of the congressman’s wife, Patrice Tierney, was found guilty in December of racketeering and conspiracy for running a multimillion-dollar gambling website with their brother Robert Eremian.

Robert Eremian, a fugitive from justice, relocated the gambling racket to Antigua from his garage in Lynnfield in the 1990s after it was raided by state police, prosecutors said at his brother’s trial.

U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris has already ordered Daniel Eremian to forfeit $8million.

Patrice Tierney pleaded guilty last year to helping Robert Eremian file false tax returns. She is still on supervised probation. Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)