Congressman Wife Illegal eGaming Operation

United States Congressman John Tierney’s wife Patricia Tierney must appear in court, this time as a witness in a case against her brother, Daniel Eremian. Eremian is charged with racketeering and other crimes related to internet gambling. Ten to one Mrs. Tierney’s family had strong connections with the world of internet gambling, that said her politician husband is not involved in this scandal.

She must appear in court as a witness when federal prosecutors announced the case against her brother to confirm her testimony. The prosecutors maintain that Tierney’s brothers as well as her son were all embroiled in illicit gambling; she appeared previously in the federal court over a brother’s supposed connection to the internet gambling syndicate.

In 2010 the Congressman’s wife pleaded guilty when she assisted another brother, Robert Eremian to file bogus tax returns and was sentenced to serve a month in prison and five months of house arrest, whilst Robert remains a fugitive on racketeering charges.

Assistant U.S District Attorney Fred M. Wyshak Jr. said in his opening statement that Mrs. Tierney will be discussing a local bank account which has been the recipient of millions of dollars in gambling profits. Daniel Eremian and a co-defendant Todd Lyons face serious charges of racketeering, money laundering and running an illicit internet gambling enterprise.

Wyshak stated that they operated an illegal gambling company named Sports Off Shore. The company is based in Antigua, and purportedly grossed more than $22 million in 13 years of operation (from 1997 through 2010), and had many employees. Ten million dollars had been transferred into an account in Massachusetts at Patrice Tierney’s disposal, and Eremian and Lyons were the main characters in collecting cash for the illegal operation.

“You will see that this is an organization that day in, day out, for almost 15 years engaged in the same criminal activity, over and over again,” Wyshak said. “This is your (classic criminal) organization stretching from Massachusetts to Florida, Belize and Antigua, and it’s all about making money.”

The attorneys of the defendant is now trying to persuade the jurors that there is a difference between illegal street gambling, and the Internet gambling operation which their clients operated and managed from Antigua, adding that there is a lack of evidence that Eremian or Lyons took bets in person, or that they were under the impression that Internet gambling was against the law.