Father, 36, Shot Dead During Gambling Game
Police are investigating the country’s latest homicide today after an 36-year-old father of one was fatally shot on Monday night during a gambling game in the Hay Street area. According to Chief Superintendent Paul Rolle, police responded to reports of gun shots near the Hay Street and Comfort Street intersection around 11pm. “When officers arrived on the scene they encountered a male with a gunshot wound to the head,” he said. “EMS responded to the scene, where they pronounced the male dead.” It is the country’s 83rd murder of 2015.
Casinos charged 42 percent more people with crimes in last fiscal year
More people trespassed and cheated in Ohio’s four casinos in the past year, according to annual criminal statistics released this week by the Ohio Casino Control Commission.The number of total charges increased 42 percent from 319 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014 to 453 in the recently completed fiscal year. Cheating is more prevalent at Horseshoe Casino Cleveland, according to the statistics. Of the 49 charges filed statewide, 36 were in Cleveland. Last year, the Cleveland casino filed 20 of the total 46 cheating charges. By comparison, Cleveland’s casino filed only 14 trespassing charges, compared to 49 filed at Hollywood Casino Toledo at Hollywood Casino Columbus. Most of the trespassing involved people with gambling problems who had enrolled themselves in a voluntary exclusion program, the casino control commission said.
Ex-bookkeeper pleads guilty to defrauding Plainville medical supply company of $2.7 million
A former longtime employee and bookkeeper pleaded guilty today in Dedham Superior Court to embezzling $2.7 million over a period of seven years from a local medical supply company. Laurieanne Richard, 40, of 172 Thurston St. in Wrentham, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of larceny and one count of making a false entry into a corporate book, according to a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Maura Healey. She faces sentencing before Judge Robert Cosgrove on Aug. 26. When Richard was arrested last year, prosecutors said she used the money she stole from Dale Medical Products at 7 Cross St. in Plainville to pay for shopping sprees, gambling binges and restaurant tabs. Prosecutors said she gambled at Twin River Casino in Lincoln, R.I., and once spent “tens of thousands of dollars” in one 17-day period.
St. Louis man gets 3 years for $200,000 fraud
A St. Louis man, Paul Parker, was sentenced to three years in federal prison Friday for defrauding investors of more than $200,000 and for failing to file tax returns, prosecutors said. Parker, 56, sold life insurance annuities, although he no longer had a license to do so, court documents show. He also didn’t buy the annuities, instead gambling away the money or spending it on personal expenses, prosecutors said. He then used money from new investors to repay earlier clients in a “Ponzi-like manner,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Finneran wrote in a sentencing memo. In all, Parker cost investors $209,168 and failed to pay $72,805 in taxes to the IRS and Missouri Department of Revenue, prosecutors said.
Boca Raton man accused of mail fraud, bilking investors of $3M
A Boca Raton man is accused of committing mail fraud while bilking his investors of about $3 million, federal prosecutors said. In a memo filed with the United States District Court of the Southern District of Florida on Wednesday, prosecutors said Timothy R. Clancy took money people gave him to invest to spend on himself. In the process of doing that, he committed mail fraud. Prosecutors said Clancy started ABD Capital Management LLC, an investment company, in 2004 in Boca Raton. He would take money meant for investment and spend it on personal expenses, according to court documents. Prosecutors said he would spend the money in casinos, to pay off personal credit cards and take out cash withdrawals from company accounts. In total, prosecutors estimate he stole more than $3 million from 20 investors. He was caught by federal officials in August 2012.
Woman Charged With Stealing $650,000 From Elderly Aunt In Stamford
A woman stole more than $650,000 from her elderly aunt to fund vacations in France, gambling and other expenses during a five-year period, Stamford police said. Barbara Pyne, 62, of 78 Wolfpits Road, Bethel, turned herself in to city police early Thursday and was held on $150,000 bond for a court appearance later Thursday. Police were notified by a Department of Social Services employee in April that an 84-year-old client was a victim of embezzlement. Stamford Police investigators Michael Stempien and Sean Coughlin started digging and discovered that from April 2008 through to October 2013 that the victim’s niece, Barbara Pyne, had misappropriated $656,406, police said. Pyne used the funds to pay off her mortgage and credit card bills and to finance vacations to France, police said. She also lost over $100,000 of the victim’s money gambling at various casinos, police said.
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