Illegal gambling, false tax return
A butcher from Highland Park, Illinois is facing federal criminal charges relating to an alleged bookie operation.
63-year-old Dominic Poeta is charged with the operation of an illegal gambling business from 2014 through 2018. He is also alleged to have falsely claimed that his income was $81,609 on his tax return for 2016.
faces a prison sentence of up to five years
A two-page document outlined the charges announced by prosecutors on Thursday. No arraignment date has been set for Poet, as he faces a prison sentence of up to five years.
On the radar for two decades
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Poeta was also accused by federal authorities of being a bookie in 2007 when they were trying to get a judgment against a gambling addict named Adam Resnick. Resnick was sent to prison for a $10m check-kiting scheme that resulted in the failure of the nearly-80-year-old Universal Federal Savings Bank in 2002.
A judge said that Poeta accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of illegal bets from Resnick in both 2001 and 2002. The sum of $891,211 was “entirely the result of illegal gambling and in payment of lost wagers and juice.” These funds were traced back to the check-kiting scheme.
Long-standing accusations
A book published by Resnick in 2007 called Bust: How I Gambled and Lost a Fortune, Brought Down a Bank – and Lived to Pay For It also refers to Poeta using the pseudonym “Luciano ‘Lucky’ Petrelli” and gives some details about his bookie operation.
Resnick would gamble every day that Poeta was open
Resnick gave testimony in 2008 that said he would go to the meat market owned by Poeta to place bets, collect winnings, and pay debts. He also said that most of these bets were made over the phone on basketball, football, baseball, boxing, and horse racing. Resnick would gamble every day that Poeta was open for business or when he had money to gamble.
At the time of the testimony, Poeta mainly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked questions about his alleged bookie operation. At the time, he faced no criminal charges but he was ordered to pay $848,197 by US District Judge Wayne Andersen.