Arkansas man accused of operating illegal gambling business, money laundering – Arkansas Online

FAYETTEVILLE -- Robert Enos Rogers, 72, of Rogers is charged with one count of operating an illegal gambling business in his house and one count of money laundering related to that, his arraignment in federal court revealed Friday.

The court unsealed Rogers' indictment Friday afternoon, after the arraignment. The government charges say Rogers operated a sports-betting business out of his home since at least Jan. 1, 2007. By February of this year, the business had at least five people involved to run it and grossed as much as $2,000 a day.

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Searches by police seized $7,438 from Rogers' car, $11,257 from his home, $60,000 from a safe-deposit box he rented, $35,000 from another and $61,700 from a third.

Rogers was freed on a $10,000 bond. He faces a maximum possible sentence of five years imprisonment on the gambling charge and also a possible fine of up to $250,000, defense attorney Kimberly Weber said.

The money-laundering charge would carry a maximum sentence of 10 years and fine of either $250,000 or up to two times as much money as laundered, Weber said.

He also faces a forfeiture civil lawsuit filed by the government that could lead to the seizure of his family's home, a lake house in Oklahoma and other assets. That suit was merged Friday with the criminal case, Weber said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Erin Wiedemann set trial for Oct. 2 in Fayetteville in the court of U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks. A pretrial conference was set for Sept. 27.

Neither Rogers nor Weber had further comment after the 3 p.m. arraignment appearance Friday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Denis Dean objected to Rogers' request to be allowed to travel to his lake house. Wiedemann agreed with the objection, saying that would impose too great a task upon the federal officers monitoring Rogers during his release. Rogers has cooperated fully with authorities, Weber said during the proceedings.

A search warrant issued Feb. 3 and related court documents show Rogers and four others who weren't named were targets of a 10-month investigation of a gambling operation.

The warrant allowed the search and seizure of evidence and property at Rogers' home, three bank safe-deposit boxes and of a vehicle owned by Rogers. The U.S. attorney also has filed two civil suits to seize Rogers' home and the lake house, along with other property.

The U.S. Justice Department's Financial Crimes Task Force received information that a person who was a financial adviser was structuring withdrawals from his personal accounts at two banks, court documents say.

Structuring is the purposeful evasion of currency reporting laws and includes the breaking down of a single sum of currency exceeding $10,000 into smaller amounts, the warrant affidavit says. Transactions of more than $10,000 must be reported by banks to federal regulators.

"The total in structured funds, since 2012, exceeds $560,000," the affidavit says. Court documents identify the financial adviser as a bettor of Rogers' establishment, not a participant in the enterprise.

Bank records also show at least two wire transfers from the adviser's account to an account belonging to Rogers, each of at least $20,000, with one each in 2015 and 2016, the affidavit says.

On Oct. 28 investigators "seized four bags of trash from inside the trash can and found the following items which confirm a gambling operation is being conducted from the residence," the affidavit says, listing both printed and handwritten documents detailing sports betting and "numerous hand-written notes detailing names, phone numbers, dollar amounts and sport teams."

Rogers listed his house for sale, and investigators found photographs of a metal building on Rogers' property with what appears to be seven slot machines, the affidavit says. The photographs also show "10 leather chairs, a poker table with several ornate wood boxes lying on top of it, which would appear to contain chips."

Posing as an interested buyer, an FBI investigator toured the house Nov. 14. The investigator saw slot machines in the property's metal building along with two safes, each about 5 feet tall, according to the affidavit. Another safe about 3 feet tall with poker chips next to it was found in a bedroom closet.

Seizures of trash on Dec. 8 and 15 found more notes describing gambling transactions. Betting averaged about $1 million a year from 2012 through 2015, the civil forfeiture cases claim.

Metro on 08/19/2017

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Arkansas man accused of operating illegal gambling business, money laundering - Arkansas Online