California execs confess
Acting US Attorney Michele Beckwith has announced the recent guilty pleas of three managers of an El Dorado Hills-based gaming firm to running an illegal $14m gambling business.
three executives from SweepsCoach confessed
According to a Tuesday press release from the US Attorney’s Office Eastern District of California (USAO-EDCA), three executives from SweepsCoach confessed to operating illicit gambling operations in California, Arizona, and other undisclosed US locations.
The USAO-EDCA took to X with news of the guilty pleas from El Dorado Hills residents Kurt Stocks, 49, and Heidi Edwards, 58, and Utah native James Mecham, 57:
According to the Department of Justice, court documents state the trio marketed the SweepsCoach brand to internet cafes in California and Arizona. For the gaming firms that took the bait, SweepsCoach would provide gaming terminals and technical assistance.
Internet gambling of this form is illegal under California and Arizona laws.
How it worked
The DOJ news release cited court documents revealing how SweepsCoach fell afoul of the law. Via the gaming portals the firm set up for its clients, bettors “used credits to play slot machine-style games on a video screen and could potentially win additional credits, which could be exchanged for money at the internet café.”
Undercover agents infiltrated the suspected cafes and recorded evidence of active use of SweepsCoach games, essentially a digital gambling vertical variant banned in California and Arizona.
The USAO-EDCA stated SweepsCoach’s internet cafe clients would “directly deposit the cash owed from the illegal gaming into bank accounts” under the control of Mecham, Stocks, and Edwards.
Court records reveal that from January 2012 to November 2017, the clients deposited around $14m in gaming proceeds into accounts controlled by the three. SweepsCoach’s gross gaming receipts for Arizona and California, were in the region of $11m.
End of the line
According to CBS News, Mecham, Stocks and Edwards’ plea deal follows a collaborative investigation by the US Attorney’s Office, IRS, FBI, California Franchise Tax Board, California Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Gambling Control.
All three are set to be sentenced in October and face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine apiece.
