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Ex-police commissioner gets 6 months for sports gambling

A U.S. district judge Friday sentenced a former member of the Kauai Police Commission to six months in prison for running an illegal sports gambling business and filing a false tax return.

Bradley Chiba, 37, was also sentenced by District Judge Leslie Kobayashi to serve six months of home detention and wear a monitoring device following his jail term. His sentence included three years of supervised release, a $3,000 fine and 50 hours of community service.

He pleaded guilty to running a sports betting operation with eight others, and falsely reporting the adjusted gross income for his tax return for 2012.

As part of a plea deal, Chiba agreed to forfeit approximately $29,000 in gambling proceeds seized from his home and bank account and pay $11,096 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Services for the 2012 taxes.

From August 2009 through February 2014, Chiba operated the illegal sports gambling business from his home. During football season, he would e-mail line sheets to his agents and players on a weekly basis, according to a court document.

He also used his cellular phone to text line sheets for football games held during the week. Chiba and his agents would receive wagers from the players via e-mail and text and would then coordinate the placement of wagers on the Internet sports betting website.

Chiba and his agents collected gambling debts and paid out gambling winnings on a weekly basis. The court document said his sports gambling business was primarily a “6/5” operation with 20 percent “juice,” which means when the players’ team lost, they would pay Chiba an additional 20 percent of their wager.

He also filed false tax returns, stating he earned $99,880 in 2012. His adjusted gross income was higher because he failed to report $39,779 he earned as a bookmaker.

Chiba resigned from the police commission in February after agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided his home and bank account earlier that month.                       

In 2011, Mayor Bernard Carvalho appointed Chiba to the commission to a partial term and reappointed him the following year to a full three-year term.

Toni Schwartz, spokeswoman of the Department of Public Safety, said Chiba is still employed as an administrator for the Kauai Intake Services Center. It’s unknown at this time whether he will remain employed with the department. “There is still an on-going internal investigation that requires the receipt of the final sentencing documents before we can move forward,” said Schwartz.

Kauai County Spokeswoman Beth Tokioka said the county declined to comment on the sentencing since Chiba is no longer a member of the police commission.

Commission Chairman Charles Iona also declined to comment.

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