The post Roger Grossman comments on ‘a little bit of everything’ appeared first on News Now Warsaw.

WARSAW — Last week, 34 people were arrested for their part in separate FBI investigations into various forms of gambling.

A current head coach in the NBA and a current player in the NBA were among those taken into custody.

There are two basic themes to the arrests: those involved in sports betting irregularities and those involved in a poker scam.

The NBA coach arrested was Chauncey Billups, coach of the Blazers, who is in the Basketball Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a player.

The player arrested was Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat.

Among the other people arrested is a former NBA player who was working for an NBA team named Damon Jones.

FBI Director Kash Patel held a press conference after the first 30 people were arrested and explained what those arrested were accused of doing.

That, in itself, was jarring.

The leader of the FBI was on our TV screens explaining how people involved in professional sports teams and leagues were going to be charged with crimes that we see in movies and TV shows but never in real life.

Billups is accused of using his connections to bring people to high-stakes poker games that were rigged.

Patel told us on Thursday that the places where these games took place were set up with technology intended to cheat people out of their money. That included rigged shuffling machines and specially designed contact lenses and sunglasses that allowed players to read the backs of playing cards that were specially marked. The people who were brought into the games had no idea what was happening and lost big money.

And the people “running” the games and collecting the money afterward are people whom the Department of Justice says are in with four major organized crime families in the United States.

When people didn’t pay, the mob did “mob things” to scare and intimidate the victims into settling up.

The other side of this mess is what might best be described as “insider trading”.

Rozier and Jones are accused of giving out information that the rank-and-file NBA fan or sports bettor didn’t have.

For example, the charges against them claim that they knew that a certain player wasn’t going to play in a game or was going to play fewer minutes in that night’s game compared to their normal minutes. They are accused of taking that information and sharing it with people who bet on NBA games.

Knowing that a certain player was going to play less minutes meant bettors could find a prop bet on that player for how many points that player would score in that game and “take the under” (bet that he would score less than where the betting agency set the line for that player).

It was not a guaranteed winning bet, but it was as close as you are going to find.

And it’s illegal.

The situation is terrible.

It’s awful.

It was completely predictable.

My voice was not the only voice to cry out when sports gambling spread like COVID across the country. I, and others like me, warned anyone who would listen that things like what happened last week would happen more and more.

I warned that the integrity of sports was about to be compromised, and maybe to the point that we couldn’t trust the results of sporting events anymore.

We are about halfway there, at this point.

It is an incredible example of how entering into a relationship with gambling is never going to end well.

Gambling is a “taker.” Even when you think you are getting something from it, gambling is letting you win occasionally to improve its grip on you.

And it never lets go.

You will be hearing more and more about these kinds of scandals as time goes on. They aren’t going away.

Knowing that, imagine how stunning it was to hear the president of the NCAA say last week that a proposal is likely to be accepted that would allow college athletes to bet on professional sports leagues.

I am not kidding.

Pro athletes and coaches who make millions of dollars are involved in gambling-related behavior in the name of making more money. What, then, should we expect from college kids who may or may not be enjoying the fruit of NIL money?

Think it will get worse?

Bet on the “over.”

The post New scandal, same problem appeared first on News Now Warsaw.

WARSAW — Winona Lake Park Director Holly Hummitch’s job appears to be hanging in the balance following a highly critical audit from the state that highlighted a wide range of deficiencies.

The town's park board met Monday night and issued a statement about the audit from the state board of accounts that echoed similar expressions of regret and concern conveyed by other town officials shortly after the findings were released on June 24.

The audit showed Hummitch improperly used a town credit card for several years to cover the cost of monthly phone rentals for two devices, one of which could not be explained.

New policies involving credit card use, purchase approvals, and cell phone usage were outlined Monday in the statement.

Use of the credit card was never formally approved by town leaders.

Park Board President Kristie Maiers read the statement and said they take the audit report very seriously and that a corrective action plan will be verified at monthly compliance meetings.

* * *

See the full statement at the end of this story.

* * *

Hummitch did not attend Monday’s meeting

Maiers said the park director serves at the pleasure of the park board.

Maiers said circumstances involving the audit are still being reviewed by the town attorney and another individual whom she declined to identify, saying she believed she was not at liberty to identify that person.

Some people on social media have called for resignations over the scandal and for money to be returned to the town coffers.

"Many people have inquired ... with regards to the actions that will be taken in response to the points brought forward by the state auditors," Maiers said. "These decisions have not been made and will not be made until information is reviewed."

The Town Council meets at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and is expected to address some of the issues.

The park board outlined three moves aimed at improving internal controls. Those include:

• Credit cards will no longer be held by employees and will be controlled by the clerk-treasurer. Requests to use the card will be required by the clerk-treasurer beforehand.
• All purchases made by the parks director will need to be approved by the parks board beforehand.
• The only park employee approved for a cell phone stipend is the park director, who has declined the option.

Monday's meeting took on a somber and cautious tone as board members reviewed updates and projects currently underway.

At one point, the board declined to approve a $42 expenditure until they received further guidance.

The 88-page report, which had been in the works for more than a year and spans four years of town practices, highlighted a wide range of deficiencies across the town government, including numerous unapproved expenditures, credit card misuse and extensive shoddy recordkeeping.

The post No decisions yet by Winona Lake Park Board following critical state audit appeared first on News Now Warsaw.

WARSAW -- Nearly ten years after the corruption was discovered, the city of Warsaw finally got some retribution involving the case of Lacy Francis.

Francis, the former street superintendent for the city of Warsaw, was among several convicted for their role in a scheme in which he and a contractor --  Marc Campbell and his company Proform --  bilked the city out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by billing the city for relining far more underground pipe than what was actually done.

The case led to an extensive effort by the government to recoup some lost money. Wages were garnished and property was seized. 

And now, a civil agreement with Campbell has resulted in a payment to the city for $200,000. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita helped recover the money.

The case has dragged on for so long that the arrival of the check was a bit of a surprise, said Mayor Joe Thallemer.

"Having been such a long time, it kind of just suddenly appeared and when we found out what it was from, it was a pretty significant amount -- the largest amount we've received," Thallemer said.

The money has been placed in the cumulative capital development fund which is used for infrastructure improvements.

The total amount of money was upward of $350,000, but the Indiana State Board of Accounts received about $150,000 before the remaining amount was sent to Warsaw, according to city attorney Scott Reust.

According to the Times-Union, Campbell pleaded guilty in January 2017 and was sentenced to one year of home detention and five years on probation, according to another previous article.

Francis was sentenced to 13 years in the Indiana Department of Corrections with 11 suspended. Mildred Francis, Lacy’s then-wife, had six counts of money laundering in connection to the scandal filed against her, and in October 2018 she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Each of the defendants was ordered to pay restitution and the city filed a lawsuit Sept. 12, 2018,

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