Two Americans pleaded guilty in their country for crimes of illegal gambling and tax evasion, through websites domiciled in Costa Rica.
The men, named Chapman (67) and Flax (46), are originally from Wichita, Kansas. Both pleaded guilty to illegal gambling operation offenses and the making of false income tax returns.
In the case of Chapman, the investigation carried out by the Department of Justice of the United States Government indicated that he did not pay more than $345 thousand (almost 170 million colones) in income taxes for the profits registered for the illegal bets.
He admitted that he worked as a sports betting broker in Wichita with at least five people. Chapman and his subordinates took bets on sporting events, had a book of accounts and recorded the ‘losses’ of each player. They allowed their customers to place bets through websites that were created and hosted in Costa Rica. In addition, they kept a part of the money they raised. Their gross income was $2 thousand a day (more than 1 million colones),”
said the US authority regarding Chapman.
The bets were on basketball, football, baseball, among other sports events. In addition, to mislead, they used the purchase of cars and goods on behalf of third parties to evade taxes.
As for Flax, the authorities indicated that he was a close collaborator of Chapman in online sports betting. However, he had his own operation controlling a clandestine site to play poker.
He worked for Chapman’s sports betting operation. He did not pay more than $65,000 in federal income taxes on illegal gambling,”
added the report published by the Department of Justice on January 12th.
Both subjects will be sentenced in the coming weeks. Under the crimes committed, they could be sentenced to more than five years in prison.
Telephone interventions were fundamental to raise the investigation against the suspects.