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Vegas sports bettor guilty of misdemeanor in federal case

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LAS VEGAS >> A prominent Las Vegas sports bettor and three family members pleaded guilty Monday to reduced charges in a plea deal that avoids federal trial in a case where the government secretly tried to confiscate more than $13 million allegedly reaped through a multimillion-dollar international illegal wagering operation.

The misdemeanor pleas could avoid prison time for Glen Cobb, 50, his 83-year-old parents, Charles Cobb and Anna Cobb, and his stepdaughter, Monica Namnard, 32.

Each pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware to being accessories after the fact to transmission of wagering information by their former business, Lycur LLC. The offense carries the possibility of up to one year behind bars. Glen Cobb pleaded guilty to two of the misdemeanor charges.

Through its attorney, John Kinchen, the now-defunct business pleaded guilty as a corporate entity to felony transmission of wagering information across state lines and international boundaries. The company could face up to a $500,000 fine.

The corporate fine is expected to be waived as part of the structured plea deal calling for the family members and the company to forfeit to the government a little more than $4.2 million of about $13 million seized more than a year ago by the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Secret Service agents.

Federal prosecutors Andrew Duncan and Jaimin Chen declined outside court to talk about the case. The family members and their lawyers, including Kinchen and Kathleen Bliss, also declined to comment ahead of sentencing July 28.

The defendants were indicted in June 2014 on felony allegations that they illegally ran an illegal bookmaking operation and structured cash transactions through casinos to conceal money from the IRS.

The case drew attention after U.S. Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach in Las Vegas last October rejected the government’s efforts to keep the confiscated funds through the use of a secret civil forfeiture procedure dubbed super-sealing.

No record of the effort was made public until a Las Vegas Review-Journal story reported on the judge’s anger. Ferenbach called it unacceptable for the government to use a process normally reserved for cases that threaten national security to ask the court to deny defendants an opportunity to publicly address possible violations of constitutional rights.

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