<section id="module-position-PU_9oJkNxiE" class="storytopbar-bucket story-headline-module story-story-headline-module">Betting tout Adam Meyer pleads guilty in $45 million scam
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Cary Spivak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 1:48 p.m. CDT September 8, 2016
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(Photo: Framegrab from RMS website, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
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Florida betting tout Adam Meyer pleaded guilty to extortion and racketeering Thursday in a scam that cost Fond du Lac millionaire Gary Sadoff $45 million — a sum that is nearly double the amount Meyer was originally charged with embezzling.
In the plea deal hammered out Wednesday and made public Thursday, prosecutors said they would seek a sentence of 12 years in prison while Meyer, once a nationally known betting handicapper who sold tips for up to $250,000, said he would ask for a five-year sentence. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 9.
In addition, Meyer acknowledged in the deal that many of the claims he made about his gambling and handicapping prowess in order to attract customers were false.
Documents filed Thursday state that Sadoff, who had been a customer of Meyer's since 2007, paid Meyer $45.3 million from March 2009 through February 2011 as the result of Meyer's "extortion and his scheme to defraud and obtain money from other means of false pretenses." The statement is contained in an attachment to the plea agreement. Meyer acknowledged in the plea deal that the facts in the attachment were true and that that federal prosecutors could prove them in court.
Sadoff initially purchased tips from Meyer but later began placing bets through bookies chosen by Meyer who created and owned Real Money Sports, a tout service. "In 2009, when (Sadoff) reduced his gambling activity, Meyer devised a new component to his fraud scheme," the plea deal attachment states.
Meyer concocted a story in which he told Sadoff, owner of Fond du Lac based Badger Liquor Co,, that a bookie was trying to collect millions from Meyer and Sadoff for a gambling debt that the bookie believed was owed by the men. The bookie threatened Meyer's life, Meyer told Sadoff.
Meyer even used the alias "Kent Wong" and adopted a fake Chinese accent when he called Sadoff to pressure him to pay the gambling debt, the documents state.
In April 2012, Meyer flew from Florida to Wisconsin with Ray Batista to meet with Sadoff in a car parked in a lot. During the meeting, Meyer cried and told Sadoff he needed nearly $10 million. Meanwhile, Batista — who is believed to have ties to Florida street gangs — held a gun near Sadoff's head and racked the chamber, prosecutors have said. Shortly afterward Sadoff, who owns the state's biggest liquor wholesaler, wired $9.8 million to an account chosen by Meyer. Batista, who is charged with three felonies, told authorities he was paid $200,000 by Meyer.
Meyer's plea opens the door for him to testify against Batista, who has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial next week. Both U.S. Attorney Gregory Haanstad and Dennis Coffey, Meyer's attorney, declined to say whether Meyer will testify in the Batista case
"This is bad news for Ray Batista," said one person familiar with the cases.
Though the plea deal document states Meyer extorted more than $45 million from Sadoff, Coffey said that he will argue "extortion was actually only $9.8 million." He declined to say why Sadoff wired an additional $33 million to accounts at the direction of Meyer.
Meyer, 43, who had billed himself as the "sports consultant to the stars," was arrested in his south Florida home in 2014 on charges of wire fraud, extortion, racketeering and brandishing a firearm, according to the six-count indictment issued by a grand jury in Wisconsin. The indictment initially charged Meyer with extorting "more than $25 million" from Sadoff.
Haanstad declined to comment on the plea deal or the change in the amount lost by Sadoff.
During the five-minute hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman Thursday, Meyer pleaded guilty to the five felonies before he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs and leg shackles.
The firearm charge, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years, was dropped in the plea bargain. Meyer pleaded guilty to the other five felonies in the deal that requires him to cooperate with continuing investigations.
Though federal authorities never disclosed the name of his victim, referring to him only as Victim A, the Journal Sentinel last year disclosed that Sadoff, was Victim A and Sadoff confirmed in an email he was the victim.
Badger Liquor, a fourth-generation family owned company, is the largest liquor distributor in the state and was founded shortly after Prohibition. It employs more than 400 people statewide.
The family is well known in the Fond du Lac area and its Sadoff Family Foundation makes numerous charitable contributions in its hometown. The foundation donated more than $600,000 to various causes in 2013, tax records show. The largest donation was for $350,000 to the Fond du Lac Arts Council.
Other disclosures in the plea deal documents include:
Meyer, who has been held without bond for more than a year, originally planned to fight the case by using an unusual defense known as the "public authority defense" coupled with an insanity plea. In a public authority defense, the defendant argues he committed the crime at the behest of law enforcement officials. For example, a drug snitch might argue he purchased illegal narcotics in order to aid a police investigation.
In Meyer's case, he was going to use a "Donnie Brasco" defense claiming that his years of working undercover for authorities caused his thought processing and "executive functioning" abilities to deteriorate, according to a filing by a former attorney for Meyer. Donnie Brasco is the undercover name used by an FBI agent who investigated organized crime. Brasco, whose story was made famous in a 1997 movie starring Johnny Depp, became involved in criminal activities while hanging out with and investigating mobsters.
Meyer's former attorney claimed in court records he had snitched for at least a dozen law enforcement agencies and helped the FBI seize more than $750 million from offshore bookies.
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Cary Spivak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 1:48 p.m. CDT September 8, 2016</section><section id="module-position-PU_9oJlUHNY" class="storytopbar-bucket piano-module story-piano-module"></section><section id="module-position-PU_9oJkKQeA" class="storytopbar-bucket google-survey-module story-google-survey-module"></section><section id="module-position-PU_9ol_HK6A" class="storymetadata-bucket expandable-photo-module story-expandable-photo-module"><aside itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" class="single-photo expandable-collapsed">
(Photo: Framegrab from RMS website, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
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Florida betting tout Adam Meyer pleaded guilty to extortion and racketeering Thursday in a scam that cost Fond du Lac millionaire Gary Sadoff $45 million — a sum that is nearly double the amount Meyer was originally charged with embezzling.
In the plea deal hammered out Wednesday and made public Thursday, prosecutors said they would seek a sentence of 12 years in prison while Meyer, once a nationally known betting handicapper who sold tips for up to $250,000, said he would ask for a five-year sentence. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 9.
In addition, Meyer acknowledged in the deal that many of the claims he made about his gambling and handicapping prowess in order to attract customers were false.
Documents filed Thursday state that Sadoff, who had been a customer of Meyer's since 2007, paid Meyer $45.3 million from March 2009 through February 2011 as the result of Meyer's "extortion and his scheme to defraud and obtain money from other means of false pretenses." The statement is contained in an attachment to the plea agreement. Meyer acknowledged in the plea deal that the facts in the attachment were true and that that federal prosecutors could prove them in court.
Sadoff initially purchased tips from Meyer but later began placing bets through bookies chosen by Meyer who created and owned Real Money Sports, a tout service. "In 2009, when (Sadoff) reduced his gambling activity, Meyer devised a new component to his fraud scheme," the plea deal attachment states.
Meyer concocted a story in which he told Sadoff, owner of Fond du Lac based Badger Liquor Co,, that a bookie was trying to collect millions from Meyer and Sadoff for a gambling debt that the bookie believed was owed by the men. The bookie threatened Meyer's life, Meyer told Sadoff.
Meyer even used the alias "Kent Wong" and adopted a fake Chinese accent when he called Sadoff to pressure him to pay the gambling debt, the documents state.
In April 2012, Meyer flew from Florida to Wisconsin with Ray Batista to meet with Sadoff in a car parked in a lot. During the meeting, Meyer cried and told Sadoff he needed nearly $10 million. Meanwhile, Batista — who is believed to have ties to Florida street gangs — held a gun near Sadoff's head and racked the chamber, prosecutors have said. Shortly afterward Sadoff, who owns the state's biggest liquor wholesaler, wired $9.8 million to an account chosen by Meyer. Batista, who is charged with three felonies, told authorities he was paid $200,000 by Meyer.
Meyer's plea opens the door for him to testify against Batista, who has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial next week. Both U.S. Attorney Gregory Haanstad and Dennis Coffey, Meyer's attorney, declined to say whether Meyer will testify in the Batista case
"This is bad news for Ray Batista," said one person familiar with the cases.
Though the plea deal document states Meyer extorted more than $45 million from Sadoff, Coffey said that he will argue "extortion was actually only $9.8 million." He declined to say why Sadoff wired an additional $33 million to accounts at the direction of Meyer.
Meyer, 43, who had billed himself as the "sports consultant to the stars," was arrested in his south Florida home in 2014 on charges of wire fraud, extortion, racketeering and brandishing a firearm, according to the six-count indictment issued by a grand jury in Wisconsin. The indictment initially charged Meyer with extorting "more than $25 million" from Sadoff.
Haanstad declined to comment on the plea deal or the change in the amount lost by Sadoff.
During the five-minute hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman Thursday, Meyer pleaded guilty to the five felonies before he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs and leg shackles.
The firearm charge, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years, was dropped in the plea bargain. Meyer pleaded guilty to the other five felonies in the deal that requires him to cooperate with continuing investigations.
Though federal authorities never disclosed the name of his victim, referring to him only as Victim A, the Journal Sentinel last year disclosed that Sadoff, was Victim A and Sadoff confirmed in an email he was the victim.
Badger Liquor, a fourth-generation family owned company, is the largest liquor distributor in the state and was founded shortly after Prohibition. It employs more than 400 people statewide.
The family is well known in the Fond du Lac area and its Sadoff Family Foundation makes numerous charitable contributions in its hometown. The foundation donated more than $600,000 to various causes in 2013, tax records show. The largest donation was for $350,000 to the Fond du Lac Arts Council.
Other disclosures in the plea deal documents include:
- Meyer claimed his Real Money Sports employed more than 130 experts, former players and other insiders to provide Meyer and his clients with inside information on sporting events. "In fact ... he typically employed between three and seven people ... None had every played, managed, or coached in professional sports."
- Meyer falsely claimed Real Money Sports used computer analysis and simulations to predict the outcome of games.
- Meyer claimed he had an "unheard of win percentage" of 67% and that he had never had a losing year as a gambler. "But for years at a time, Meyer did sustain significant personal gambling losses."
Meyer, who has been held without bond for more than a year, originally planned to fight the case by using an unusual defense known as the "public authority defense" coupled with an insanity plea. In a public authority defense, the defendant argues he committed the crime at the behest of law enforcement officials. For example, a drug snitch might argue he purchased illegal narcotics in order to aid a police investigation.
In Meyer's case, he was going to use a "Donnie Brasco" defense claiming that his years of working undercover for authorities caused his thought processing and "executive functioning" abilities to deteriorate, according to a filing by a former attorney for Meyer. Donnie Brasco is the undercover name used by an FBI agent who investigated organized crime. Brasco, whose story was made famous in a 1997 movie starring Johnny Depp, became involved in criminal activities while hanging out with and investigating mobsters.
Meyer's former attorney claimed in court records he had snitched for at least a dozen law enforcement agencies and helped the FBI seize more than $750 million from offshore bookies.
