Chicago-Area Man Charged With Conducting Illegal Sports Gambling Business

CHICAGO — A Chicago-area man has been charged in federal court with conducting an illegal sports gambling business in the city and suburbs.

GREGORY EMMETT PALOIAN conducted an illegal sports bookmaking business from 2015 to 2019, according to a criminal information filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.  Paloian operated his business in Chicago, Elmwood Park, and Melrose Park, the information states.

The information charges Paloian, 66, of Elmwood Park, with one count of conducting an illegal gambling business.  It seeks forfeiture from Paloian of $274,070 and a 2017 Audi automobile.

Arraignment is set for Oct. 7, 2020, at 10:15 a.m., before U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow in Chicago.

The information was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI; and Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division.   The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Terry M. Kinney and Ankur Srivastava.

The public is reminded that a charge is not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. 

The gambling charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.  If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.