Department of Justice (DOJ) documents released Wednesday confirm that the announcement came from First Assistant US Attorney Michelle M. Baeppler for the Northern District of Ohio along with Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart. M Goldberg from the Tax Division of the Justice Department.
The DOJ revealed that the criminal case was investigated by the US Homeland Security Investigations, as well as the US Department of Treasury, Office of the Inspector General, the IRS and the Ohio Casino Control Commission. The probe uncovered two illegal gambling businesses that involved millions in unreported income after tens of millions of wagers.
Rebecca Kachner, a woman from Ohio, was identified as one of the participants in the illegal gambling operation that was active in Canton. The woman was sentenced to two years in prison over conspiring to defraud the IRS regarding her ownership and operation of the illegal gambling locations. Additionally, US District Judge Donald Nugent ordered Kachner to pay $1.2 million in restitution and serve three years of supervised release.
Illegal Gambling Business Rakes in Millions
The investigation uncovered that Kachner co-conspired by owning and operating two illegal gambling locations in Ohio: Redemption Skill Games 777 and Skilled Shamrock. Judging by court documents, Kachner was involved in the operation of those illegal gambling businesses between 2010 and 2018. Besides her, the investigation identified other co-conspirators that included her husband and other individuals.
“According to court documents and statements made in court, from 2010 through 2018, Rebecca Kachner, along with other coconspirators, owned and operated two illegal gambling businesses, Skilled Shamrock and Redemption Skill Games 777,“
Reads a statement released by the Department of Justice
According to the DOJ, Kachner and her accomplices conspired to defraud the IRS by “filing false tax returns that omitted most of the income they received from their illegal gambling operation and by using a nominee owner to conceal their ownership of the businesses,” a statement reveals. It was determined that more than $34 million was wagered at the two locations by visitors between 2012 and 2017.
Ultimately, the illegal operation brought a total of $4 million in income to the people involved. From that total, some $2.3 million in income from the illegal gambling operation was collected by Kachner and her husband, the DOJ said. Not unexpectedly, most of the aforementioned proceeds were not reported by the defendants. Additionally, law enforcement also uncovered some $241,000 in cash from illegal gambling proceeds stashed in a storage container that according to the investigation was rented by Kachner.