Indictment centers on bringing money to Nevada

Bill Gang

Monday, Oct. 19, 1998 | 11:13 a.m.

The picture portrayed in the indictment of Billy Walters and three colleagues is of a computerized multimillion-dollar sports-betting operation that funnels money and information to and from illegal bookmakers across the country and even internationally.

The cash proceeds are held in casino safety deposit boxes rather than banks, and a variety of people using a variety of names place and collect bets on a daily basis using Walters' money, court documents stated.

Banks of phones at Walters' Sierra Sports Inc. are staffed by employees who use code names to access a nationwide network of illegal bookmakers in addition to legal sports books in Nevada between December 1995 and December 1996, according to the documents.

Walters doesn't dispute he a professional gambler and contends there is nothing wrong with that.

Deputy Attorney General David Thompson and a Clark County grand jury, however, saw plenty wrong with the way Walters conducts his business.

The indictment, handed down Friday, charges Walters, Jimmy Jay Hanley, John Tognino and Daniel Pray with conspiracy and two counts of unlawful transactions involving monetary instruments -- commonly referred to as money laundering. The conspiracy count is a gross misdemeanor. The other charges are felonies.

All except Tognino, who lives in New York, are being summoned to court on Nov. 13. A warrant has been issued for Tognino. District Judge Lee Gates set bail at $30,000.

The charges do not allege Walters or the others were illegally taking bets, but claim that betting with illegal bookies, primarily in New York, and bringing the proceeds to Nevada is illegal.

The proceeds went in and out of a safety deposit box at Binion's Horseshoe hotel-casino that was in Hanley's name.

"At Walters' direction, Hanley would disperse these illegal proceeds to Walters or to Walters' designees, which included 85 illegal bookmakers, agents for illegal bookmakers and persons with telephone credit accounts at various casinos," the indictment states.

According to the indictment, those individuals would place bets through accounts in their own names, but money to place the bets was provided by Walters.

Much of the operation was conducted from an office complex at 3200 Polaris Ave., where 52 telephone lines had been installed to place wagers at Walters' direction to illegal bookies, called "Outs," in various states and countries that included Canada, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Netherlands Antilles and Costa Rica.

The phone bill for October 1996 showed more than 10,000 long distance calls.

"According to the accounts of this business," the indictment states, "Walters had approximately $6.7 million involved in his business of wagering with various illegal bookmakers -- 85 as of Nov. 17, 1996."

Passwords and code names were used to disguise identities and access the illegal books.

Also on the payroll were persons called "movers" to place the bets, and at one point Walters had 39 such individuals making wagers, according to the court document. In addition, there were 19 "handicappers" working for Walters, the indictment alleges.

In the loop, it says, were more than 100 illegal bookmakers represented by four "Out Agents," including Tognino, whose code name was "Tugboat."

The entire operation, the indictment states, was managed through a network of 20 computers set up by Pray, who maintained a computer journal of accounts receivable and payable.

The charges of conducting unlawful monetary transactions alleged Walters and Hanley received deliveries of $35,000 and $50,000 in October 1996 from Tognino, with the proceeds being secured in the safety deposit box at the Horseshoe "to conceal the illegal source, ownership, control and location."

Those three were aided in the process by Pray, who kept computer records, the indictment charges.

In addition to seeing 79 exhibits, the grand jury heard testimony from eight witnesses, including three Metro Police investigators, Det. Ray Brotherson, Sgt. Gayland Hammack and Investigator Nancy Paine.

Also testifying were two detectives from New York City, FBI Special Agent David Vanzant and the records custodians for two local businesses.