Sports Offshore's Eremian and Lyons sentenced
Eremian claims brother-in-law, US Representative John Tierney, 'knew everything' about illegal operation.
Daniel Eremian, the principal of US-facing bookmaker Sports Offshore, has been sentenced to three years in prison and been ordered to forfeit US$7.7m after being convicted on counts of racketeering and illegal gambling.
The 62-year-old is the brother-in-law of United States Representative John Tierney, and has claimed that the politician “knew everything” about the illegal goings-on.
According to various newspapers in Massachusetts, where he was sentenced, Eremian said: “Tierney is the biggest liar in the world…he knew everything that was going on in my family for years. He sat with bookies at Fenway Park.”
Sports Offshore agent Todd Lyons, the first individual to be convicted under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), was also sentenced in Massachusetts yesterday. Depending on reports he received anywhere between 48 months four years in federal prison and has been forced to forfeit more than US$24m.
Tierney’s wife Patrice – Eremian’s sister – is currently on supervised probation for helping another sibling, Robert Eremian, file false tax returns in relation to his activity with Sports Offshore. The bookmaker was based but not licensed in Antigua and took bets from the US. Daniel Eremian said: “For [John Tierney] to throw my sister under the bus for his career was wrong.”
However a spokesperson for Tierney issued a statement hitting back at Eremian, saying “His claims lack both credibility and logic.”
Robert Eremian and Richard Sullivan – both of whom have ties to Sports Offshore – are currently fugitives in Antigua.