US attorney Carmen Ortiz has secured the first online gambling conviction under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which was enacted in 2006.
Daniel Eremian, the brother-in-law of US Representative John Tierney, was convicted alongside co-defendant Todd Lyons of racketeering and gambling charges in a US District Court in Boston on Monday, according to a report in the Boston Globe.
Eremian is accused of running a large-scale gambling operation under an online betting site - Sports Offshore - based on the island of Antigua in the Caribbean.
According to the report, prosecutors said that Eremian and his brother Robert Eremian illegally took bets from across the east coast of the US and that Lyons helped collect millions of dollars from 1998 to 2006.
Racketeering charges allow for a maximum 20-year prison sentence and Lyons also faces up to 20 years in prison for the additional convictions of violating the UIGEA.
The lead prosecutor asked that both men be detained without bail until being sentenced on March 8. US District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton has allowed both men to remain free until a detention hearing tomorrow.
