Antigua Man Who Was Arrested 13 Years After Being Charged in Connection With Illegal Gambling Ring Pleads Guilty

BOSTON – An Antigua man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to his participation in a large-scale illegal gambling business which utilized an Antiguan Internet site, but operated in the continental United States. In total, defendant and co-conspirators collected over $22 million through an illegal gambling operation and laundered more than $10 million in checks and wire transfers.

Richard Sullivan, 74, of St. John’s, Antigua, pleaded guilty to operating an illegal gambling business and transmission of wagering information. U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris scheduled sentencing for March 28, 2024. Sullivan was indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston in August 2010 and was arrested in August 2023 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York upon his return to the United States from Antigua. 

This 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. The UIGEA statute was enacted in 2006 to deter the use of the U.S. banking system to pay Internet gambling debts incurred by U.S. citizens. Sullivan and his co-defendants were originally charged with over 75 counts of engaging in U.S. banking transactions involving U.S.-based gamblers to pay gambling debts owed to Sports Offshore, an online gambling site licensed in Antigua that was actually operating in the United States.

Sullivan and his three co-conspirators – Todd Lyons, Robert Eremian and Daniel Eremian – operated Sports Offshore – which stretched from Massachusetts to Florida. Sports Offshore used an Internet site and toll-free telephone line registered in Antigua to service United States customers. The ring also employed approximately 50 gambling agents in the United States, 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 created numerous fictitious entities with no legitimate business purpose to launder the proceeds of their illegal gambling business so that authorities could not detect U.S.-based financial transactions involving Sports Offshore. 

Sullivan managed the daily activities of Sports Offshore at its gambling office in St. John’s, Antigua. In that capacity, Sullivan supervised employees who accepted wagers from customers in the United States that were placed over the telephone and the Internet. Sullivan helped direct collection activities regarding customers and agents located in the United States who owed money to Sports Offshore. Sullivan also served as an agent for Sports Offshore and was responsible for a group of Massachusetts customers who gambled with Sports Offshore, earning commissions on gambling losses incurred by those customers. Additionally, Sullivan used Massachusetts residents to collect money from his local customers which he had shipped directly to Antigua via the mail.  

In total, Sullivan and his co-conspirators collected over $22 million for Sports Offshore through the illegal 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 jury 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. 

The charge of operating an illegal gambling business provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, and up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. The charge of transmission of wagering information provides for a sentence of up to two years in prison, and up to one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Harry Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, Boston Field Office; Brian Kyes, United States Marshal for the District of Massachusetts; and John E. Mawn, Jr., Interim Colonel of the Massachusetts State Police made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Essex County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Chao, Chief of the Public Corruption & Special Prosecutions Unit is prosecuting the case.