By Jeff Lipton
The ring handled illegal wagers on horse racing, professional baseball, football and other sporting events and allegedly ran wire rooms in Kew Gardens and Flushing, Queens, as well as at a site in Costa Rica. The ring allegedly handled up to 2,000 bets a day and booked more than $2.5 million in one day during the 2005 NFL playoffs, authorities said.
The local suspects were identified as Marc Rovner, 42, of Oxford Road in East Rockaway, Thomas Bruno, 32, of Holyoke Road in Rockville Centre; Michael D'Alessandro, 40, of West Oceanside Road in Oceanside; John Diamond Jr., 34, of James Street in Inwood; Neil Gottlieb, 49, of Beech Street in Atlantic Beach (who sources said has yet to be arrested); and Eric Kahane, 30, of Margie Street in Oceanside.
Bail was set at $100,000 for Rovner, $100,000 for Bruno, $15,000 bond/$75,000 cash for D'Alessandro, $50,000 for Diamond, and $150,000 for Kahane. The defendants pleaded not guilty before Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Buchter, who set a June 21 return date in the case. The defendants face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, joined by New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, announced the indictments on Wednesday, May 18. "Today's arrests close down a highly lucrative gambling operation that benefited the Bonanno crime family to the tune of millions of dollars each year," said Brown. "They send a clear signal to all who involve themselves in illegal gambling that law enforcement will keep up the pressure and not allow them to operate. Organized crime reaps huge profits from illegal gambling that evade taxation and underwrite its other more insidious forms of corruption, such as labor racketeering, drug trafficking, auto theft, insurance fraud and loan sharking. Illegal gambling is by no means a victimless crime - it provides the fuel that allows organized crime to operate."
Kelly said, "There's no such thing as a friendly wager when organized crime is involved. I want to commend the outstanding work of the detectives and prosecutors in this case."
A 39-count enterprise corruption indictment filed in Queens County Supreme Court charges that the mob-run gambling ring operated three "wire rooms" that handled illicit wagers averaging $250 at 136-72 72nd Ave. in Kew Gardens Hills; at 147-19 Jewel Ave. in Flushing and at a shopping mall in San Jose, Costa Rica.
The criminal enterprise allegedly generated gross revenues of nearly $500,000 a day, $15 million a month and $180 million a year during the 28-month period covered by the indictment, officials said. The ring is alleged to have relied on computers, the Internet, e-mail, AOL instant messaging and a toll-free telephone number that ran up a monthly bill of more than $50,000.
The suspects were arrested on charges of enterprise corruption - a violation of New York State's Organized Crime Control Act - as well as promoting gambling, possession of gambling records and conspiracy.
Brown said that the investigation leading to the arrests began in January 2003, when detectives assigned to the police department's Organized Crime Control Bureau developed information about an illegal betting ring and began a joint investigation with the District Attorney's Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau. The investigation included physical surveillance, intelligence information and court-authorized electronic eavesdropping that intercepted more than 50,000 conversations.
The indictment additionally charged that the ring used 25 "runners" who maintained lists of bettors, paid their wins and collected their losses and recruited new bettors to the enterprise. These defendants include Rovner, Bruno, and D'Alessandro. The indictment alleges that in exchange for a share of the ring's gambling profits, each runner managed his own group of bettors, accepting and relaying bets or providing bettors with a phone number and runner's code for a particular wire room, then settling up their bettors' wins and losses.
The indictment also alleges that the ring used a non-traditional wire room, an offshore, Internet-based gambling service by which bettors and runners placed wagers. It is alleged that the ring used the offshore wire room to maintain numerous runners' and bettors' gambling accounts through the Internet Web site in an effort to evade law enforcement detection through traditional methods.
Darryl Buford, attorney for Rovner, declined to comment.
