New York Cop Gets Caught : Internet gambling Ring
A $30 million-a-year internet gambling ring, run out of a Queens strip club and headed by a former city police officer, was busted with the arrest of 17 suspects following a 14-month investigation, the Queens district attorney said Wednesday.
The gambling operation, which funneled its bets through an offshore internet-based service, handled bets on football, baseball, basketball, hockey, horse racing, NASCAR and pro golf, according to an indictment.
The ring's kingpin was identified as John "JK" Kinahan, 56, of Dix Hills, an ex-NYPD officer currently working as a manager at the topless dance club City Scapes, authorities said. A former NYPD detective from the organized crime division, 59-year-old Phillip Buckles of Miller Place, also was arrested.
The two former policemen, along with the 15 other suspects, were charged with enterprise corruption, which carries a sentence of up to 25 years in prison, said District Attorney Richard A. Brown. Various suspects were also charged with promoting gambling and conspiracy, the prosecutor said.
"When it comes to Internet sports gambling rings operating in Queens County, all bets are off," Brown said. "My office has zero tolerance for such illegal activity."
The indictment said the investigation began in January 2006. Among the other suspects were Kinahan's wife, Virginia Kinahan, who worked as the ring's bookkeeper, along with a city sanitation worker, a U.S. Postal employee and a Merrill Lynch stockbroker, authorities said.
Using court-authorized electronic eavesdropping, investigators in the case intercepted nearly 50,000 conversations from six different telephones, Brown said.
