US online sports operator gets three years

Daniel Eremian, the US online sports betting operator recently convicted late last year on illegal offshore gambling business charges has been sentenced to three years imprisonment.

But the news media in Massachusetts appeared more interested in his critical comments about his brother-in-law U.S. Rep. John Tierney, made outside the court and alleging that the politician “knew everything” about the illegal enterprise.

“He knew everything that was going on,” Eremian asserted. “He sat in the boxes with bookies at Fenway Park.”

Tierney’s spokesperson fired back that Eremian’s allegations were “bizarre, unsubstantiated and false” and a result of a family grudge.

“Daniel Eremian spent the last several years telling anyone who would listen, including a federal judge and jury, that he was innocent of charges the government accused him of committing,” said Tierney spokeswoman Kathryn Prael. “Now he is claiming both to be innocent and that John Tierney should have known that he was guilty. His claims lack both credibility and logic.”

Patrice Tierney, sister of Eremian and wife of Tierney, served a 30-day jail sentence last year after pleading guilty to aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns for another brother, Robert Eremian, a fugitive who has been indicted on illegal gambling and money laundering charges for running Sports Off Shore in Antigua.

Patrice Tierney testified that she and her husband, a Democrat from Massachusetts’ 6th District who is facing a re-election challenger, did not know that Robert Eremian was running an illegal gambling operation. She said she was managing a bank account to help him care for his children.

John Tierney has said his wife was betrayed by her brother, believing his income came from selling or licensing software to legal Internet gambling businesses.

Daniel Eremian told local newspapers that he believes his sister was forced to enter a plea agreement with federal prosecutors to save her husband’s political career, and said that for Tierney “to throw my sister under the bus for his career was wrong.”

Patrice backed her husband, saying: “It shocks and saddens me to learn that my brother would say something so utterly false about me and my husband in a moment of desperation and anger.”

The Eremian accusations come at a politically sensitive time, and were immediately seized upon by John Tierney’s GOP challenger, Richard Tisei, who said Eremian’s comments raise questions about Tierney’s fitness to serve.

Eremian and co-defendant Todd Lyons, were convicted in December of racketeering, conspiracy, operating an illegal gambling business and Wire Act offenses. Lyons was sentenced to four years jail time.

Prosecutors have said the business employed about 50 gambling agents in the United States, and claim that it laundered more than $10 million in checks and wire transfers.

Eremian and Lyons were ordered to report to the courthouse on Friday to begin serving their sentences.