2 indicted for allegedly running illegal sports betting, loansharking, and money laundering operation
Two Springfield men were indicted Wednesday for allegedly running an illegal sports betting, loansharking, and money laundering operation in Western Massachusetts, the state Attorney General’s office said in a statement.
Rex Cunningham, 65, and Brian Hoyle, 59, were charged with money laundering, organizing and promoting illegal gaming, registering bets, using the telephone to register bets, delivery to and from a person engaged in illegal gaming, conspiracy to register bets, witness intimidation, and two counts of loansharking.
Cunningham and Hoyle also allegedly preyed on compulsive gamblers by collecting debts with “exorbitant” interest rates of 150 to 250 percent per year, according to the AG’s office.
“The charges as alleged by our evidence show that these defendants targeted people vulnerable to gambling addictions, profited through usurious interest charged on their debts, and laundered the profits in attempt to avoid detection,” State Police Colonel Richard McKeon said in the statement.
The AG’s office said Cunningham and Hoyle ran the illegal operation out of a bar, where they collected bets from dozens of bettors. They allegedly arranged the bets through a sports betting website and conducted secret meetings on the illegal operation in the parking lot of the bar, according to authorities.
Cunningham and Hoyle are expected to be arraigned in Hampden Superior Court at a later date.
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