Major online sports gambling bust in the U.S.A

Nine defendants, led by Ylli Gjeli, are named in a new online sports betting indictment unsealed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Friday, accusing them of a slew of federal charges that include RICO activity, loan sharking and providing illegal online gambling through websites like 247fantasysports.com and YourBetsOnline.com.

The 84-page indictment names Gjeli, along with Fatmir Mustafaraj, George Markakis, Erion Murataj, Gezim Asllani, Rezart Rahmi Telushi, Eneo Jahaj, Brian Jackson and Ardit Pone, providing extensive and detailed information on their illegal activities that suggests close surveillance and deep investigations.

The crimes allegedly took place in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the District of New Jersey, and elsewhere, and include the acts of loan sharking, extortion, illegal gambling, the collection of unlawful debts, protecting the operations of the enterprise and promoting its interests through acts of violence, actual and implied threats of violence, and concealing the existence and operations of the enterprise from law enforcement detection.

Members and associates of the enterprise attempted to conceal their existence and operations by limiting their discussions of criminal activities when on the phone, using cryptic and coded language to describe criminal activities, such as “pizza” to describe a loan, conducting pat-downs and body searches of customers to check for weapons and recording devices, and conducting the enterprise’s transactions primarily in cash.

The bust involved a range of federal and state enforcement agencies such as the FBI, the IRS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations, assisted by state police in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

View the full indictment here: http://www.justice.gov/usao/pae/News/2013/August/gjeli_indictment.pdf