Offshore Gambling Ring

BOSTON (AP) -- Twelve men, including a brother-in-law of a former FBI agent now in prison for mob-related racketeering, were charged with running an offshore gambling ring and trying to bully bar owners into selling their establishments. In a federal indictment unsealed Monday, federal prosecutors charged Arthur Gianelli, 47, with racketeering, extortion and money laundering. Gianelli paid the New England mob for protection to allow his gambling ring to thrive, the indictment alleged. Gianelli's wife's sister is married to former FBI agent James J. Connolly Jr., a key figure in the scandal in recent years surrounding the FBI's handling of informants in the Boston mob. The indictment alleged that Gianelli's group made money illegally through football betting cards, video poker machines and Internet gambling. The ring allegedly paid a Costa Rica-based offshore gambling company, Westhod Consultants, to take bets online and over the phone. Gianelli is also charged with using threats and intimidation to force the owners of two bars in Boston to sell. Eleven of the 12 suspects, including Gianelli, were arrested Sunday or Monday. The 12th lives in Costa Rica. According to the indictment, one of the suspects, Joseph Yerardi Jr., a convicted loanshark and bookie, let Gianelli to run his gambling business when he went to prison a decade ago. It alleges that Gianelli funneled some of the profits to Yerardi by mailing money orders to his prison canteen account. Connolly was convicted in 2002 of racketeering, obstruction of justice and lying to an FBI agent. He allowed James "Whitey" Bulger, the former leader of the Winter Hill Gang who is now a fugitive, to commit crimes in exchange for information that Connolly used to convict other mobsters. Gianelli's wife, Mary Anne, whose sister is married to Connolly, declined to comment on the indictment on behalf of herself and her husband, The Boston Globe said. Copyright © 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.