Web-gambling ring in Utah?

Draper, Utah, is far removed from the fast pace and moving lights of the Las Vegas gambling machine, and that's what seven Vegas residents were banking on when they set up a multimillion-dollar money-laundering service for illegal Internet gambling operations, federal prosecutors said Friday.

In a 34-count indictment unsealed Friday, federal prosecutors contend that seven Las Vegas residents had set up an elaborate laundering service to scrub clean illegal Internet gambling proceeds using a series of overseas bank accounts and computer servers that were fed into several Utah-based companies. Agents say the group processed more than $150 million in gambling proceeds between 2000 and 2007.

Charged in the indictment are Baron Lombardo, Count Lombardo, Richard Cason-Selman, Henry Bankey, Tina Hill, Frank Lombardo and Kimberlie Lombardo. The group faces charges of racketeering, bank fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

Agents say U.S.-based gambling patrons would place bets on illegal gambling Web sites that offered gambling games and sporting-event betting, which were then forwarded to servers located in Antigua, Jamaica, Korea and other countries. The servers would then forward transactions to Gateway Technologies and Hill Financial Services Inc. out of Draper, where the funds were laundered through a series of Visa and Master Card transactions under miscellaneous purchase codes, documents say. The money was then sent back to Internet gaming site owners, while other transactions were funneled through contacts in the Philippines via Western Union wire transfers, documents say.

U.S. Attorney for Utah Bret Tolman said Utah may have been chosen for such an operation because the group may have thought that Las Vegas was too obvious a place. Utah, perhaps, would arouse less suspicion, Tolman said.

Although the seven were located in Las Vegas, Tolman said they operated the servers in Utah using support staff but controlled the operation via remote connection to computers in Vegas.

Tolman said the case came to light when the IRS noticed several unusual transactions from the companies and through some outside information.

"Virtually all Internet gambling is illegal," Tolman said. "Individuals and businesses that facilitate illegal Internet gambling are violating numerous federal and state laws."