Attorney Helped Run Gambling Business Out of Law Office, Feds Say, Making Up to $25K Weekly
A Michigan attorney accused of collaborating with four other men to run a betting scheme out of his law office and bars in Detroit and Dearborn pleaded guilty this week to operating an illegal gambling business that raked in as much as $25,000 weekly.
John Stephen Shelly, 49, faces up to a year in prison and up to $20,000 in fines and forfeiture of as much as $300,000 in assets under the terms of his plea Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Crain’s Detroit Business reports.
The felony can result in sentences of as much as five years and fines of more than $250,000.
The article doesn’t include any comment from Shelly or his counsel. He practices in St. Clair Shores, a State Bar of Michigan website says.
Prosecutors say Shelly and four other men ran the operation from early 2006 to late 2007. They have collected $250,000 in cash through the execution of search warrants in Florida and Michigan and expect to collect more than $350,000 in cash, vehicles and other property through forfeiture proceedings, the article says.
