Select an option below to continue reading this premium story.
Already a Honolulu Star-Advertiser subscriber? Log in now to continue reading.
One of seven people charged with running a sports betting operation out of a bottled-water company in Kailua-Kona pleaded guilty Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court.
Matthew Phillips, 39, pleaded guilty to operating an illegal gambling business.
"I was part of an organization that would take sports bets, usually over the phone," Phillips said. The operation would collect wagers and pay out winnings on a weekly cycle.
He said the majority of the gambling was sports betting but also included craps games and poker.
Phillips faces a maximum five-year prison term at sentencing in June.
He also agreed to forfeit $34,950 of the $48,000 that the government seized from a safe deposit box and $26,546 found in his vehicle and his 2010 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck when he was arrested in November.
His lawyer, Emmett Lee Loy, said Phillips reserves the right to recover whatever money the government is not claiming from the safe deposit box.
Three other defendants — Kendale Limahai, Eric Ford and Robert Bland — are scheduled to plead guilty in the coming weeks. A federal indictment against them accuses Ford of operating his illegal gambling business out of Aloha Springs Water Co. on Olowalu Street.
The other people charged with conspiracy and gambling offenses are Marlo Banasan, Jonah Yardley and Trevor Carter. The indictment also charges Eric Ford and Barbara Ford with purchasing money orders in amounts of less than $10,000 to evade reporting requirements.
