According to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, the network of offshore sportsbooks included WagerABC, The WagerSpot and Hustler 247, which Mitchnick and fellow defendants began operating in April 2015. Prosecutors said that the California-native Mitchnick, whose bail was set at $2 million at an arraignment Wednesday, was the head of the operation. If convicted, they could spend up to 25 years in prison. Online sports gambling is legal in Costa Rica but not in the U.S.ĭefendants Gordon Mitchnick, 58 Joseph Schneider, 39 Arthur Rossi, 66 and Claude Ferguson, 43, were charged with enterprise corruption, first-degree promoting gambling, second-degree possession of gambling records and fifth-degree conspiracy.
Thursday’s wide-reaching, 57-count indictment from Brooklyn, New York District Attorney Ken Thompson alleges that four men from California and New York promoted illegal gambling through a large network of sportsbooks with an office headquartered in Costa Rica. A billion-dollar sports gambling operation based out of San José, Costa Rica may be out of luck after United States authorities arrested the men they say are the brains behind the illegal gambling scheme.
