Family of Four Enters Plea Agreement in Illegal Betting Case

Las Vegas sports bettor Glen Cobb, his parents and his stepdaughter have made an agreement with the government to plead guilty of running multimillion-dollar illegal betting operation. They have agreed to hand over $4.3m of $13.2m that government seized.

The case was investigated by financial task force led by IRS criminal investigation in Las Vegas.

With his 82 year- old parents Charles and Anna, and his stepdaughter Monica Namnard, Glen was running an illegal bookmaking operation from March 2011 through December 2013. The Cobbs were also structuring cash transactions through the casinos between 2008 and 2011 in order to avoid federal reporting requirements.

In 2002, the Internal Revenue Service began investigating the Cobb family on suspicions of operating an illegal gambling operation. The Cobbs allegedly structured cash withdrawals and chip redemption from various casinos to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements.

They were taken to court in 2013 after a raid during which agents seized $10.5m from different bank accounts along with their cell phones, computers and other electronic equipment. It was reported that US Secret Service agents also seized around $2.7m from two safes at Glen’s home.

After the raid, government was seeking court permission to keep $13.2 that was seized from the Cobbs even though no criminal charges were filed against the family at the time. In June last year, however, grand jury charged Glen Cobb with a felony of running illegal gambling business. Glen and his family were also charged with the felony of conspiring to unlawfully structure $2.6 million to avoid federal reporting requirements and hide money from the IRS.

Glen Cobb's case has attracted attention of many people because some documents of the case were kept from the public. US Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach said that level of secrecy in Cobb’s case is normally reserved for the cases that are threatening national security or public safety.

Judge Cam Ferenbach issued a written decision questioning the government’s use of the courts in secret campaigns. Judge Ferenbach stated that it is intolerable that government asked the court to rule against private citizens and then didn't give them an opportunity to redress possible violations of their rights only because of secret government action that was kept from the public.

Judge Cam also said that federal prosecutors filed two civil forfeiture actions under court process that gave no notice to Cobbs or anyone else. However government stopped with civil forfeiture efforts after Cobbs were indicted and were trying to keep the money that was taken from them.

Glen has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of misdemeanor accessory while his parents and stepdaughter agreed to plead guilty to one count of gambling misdemeanor. They have also agreed to hand over $4.3m of $13.2m that government seized in the raid.