Rochester ringleaders convicted
Chief US District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford has handed out relatively light sentences to two Rochester men behind an illegal $10m gambling ring that involved an ex-state trooper.
Judge Wolford sentenced Louis P. Ferrari II and Dominic Sprague to three years’ probation, “to include 10 months home detention,” according to the US Attorney for the Western District of New York (USAO-WDNY). The USAO-WDNY took to X to share the penalties for Ferrari, 42, and Sprague, 40:
The DOJ convicted the pair of conducting an unlawful gambling business and “conspiracy to transmit wagering information in interstate commerce.” They were involved with multiple others in a conspiracy to “finance, manage, and own all or part of” the illegal bookmaking business via their sport700.com platform.
Loewke goes down
Ferrari and Sprague’s conviction came after the fall of former New York State Police (NYSP) trooper Thomas J. Loewke, who was charged in January 2023 for tipping off the illegal betting operation to state or local law enforcement investigations.
Despite facing a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, Loewke, 52, got off lightly in December when US District Judge David Larimer handed him two years’ probation after pleading guilty in May 2023.
Loewke confessed to tipping off Ferrari to law enforcement investigations. Ferrari allegedly then deleted the betting history of sport700.com, altered its passwords, and completely changed the website itself.
Widespread conspiracy
Last week, assistant US Attorneys Meghan K. McGuire and Melissa M. Marangola stated that Ferrari and Sprague conspired with Anthony Amato, Tomasso Sessa, Joseph Lombardo, Jeffrey Boscarino, James Civiletti in the illegal bookmaking business that ran from April 25, 2019, to April 17, 2021.
According to a USAO-WDNY news release on Thursday, Ferrari, Sprague, and Lombardo collected money from individual bettors and paid them winnings in cash and via online payment applications including PayPal, Venmo, CashApp, and Zelle.
Sprague and Lombardo kept a cut of the money received from bettors
The DOJ stated that Sprague and Lombardo kept a cut of the money received from bettors while paying the rest to Ferrari. Sessa and Civiletti also kept a portion of bettors’ payments before handing over the remainder to Sprague and Ferrari.
For their role in the illegal betting operation that the Feds stated had a gross daily revenue of approximately $2,000, Judge Wolford also ordered Ferrari to forfeit $150,000 and Sprague $92,000.
