Three plead guilty to gambling operations in Georgia and South Carolina – The Augusta Chronicle

Three men pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal charge of taking part in illegal gambling operations, including two Burke County men who agreed to forfeit a total of more than $300,000.

Grady BrandonMobley and Daniel Cates of Burke County and Joel Rees Jones of Greenwood, S.C., entered their pleas in U.S. District Court in Augusta to violation of the prohibition of illegal gambling. Mobley also pleaded guilty to a second charge, false or fraud statements for filing a fraudulent income tax return for 2017.

As part of the plea agreement, Mobley turned over a check for $207,716 in forfeiture funds and a $2,000 fine. Cates agreed to pay a $100,000 forfeiture before his sentencing.

IRS and FBI agents uncovered the gambling operating. They foundevidence that Mobley operated as a bookie for at least 10 years in Burke County, taking bets and paying out winnings, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tara Lyons told Chief Judge J. Randal Hall.

Mobley eventually moved the business online to a sports betting website operated out of Costa Rica. In September 2015, Mobley joined with Jones who operated a small gambling business. The two men split proceeds, Lyons said.

The federal agents were able to trace most of the money, but they couldn't find any evidence in bank records against Jones, Lyons said. He later told agents that he always kept the gambling money in cash.

Mobley used his parents'legal check-cashingbusiness for a time, then moved to Cates' tire store to try to eliminate any trace of illegal funds, Lyons said. Between 2014 and 2017 there was $250,000that federal agents tracedthrough Cates' business, Lyons said.

All three men remain free on bonds set Thursday. Sentencing will take place after pre-sentencing reports are prepared by the federal probation office.

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Three plead guilty to gambling operations in Georgia and South Carolina - The Augusta Chronicle