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No bail in NYC online gambling case

By Pat Milton
November 30, 2006

NEW YORK — A professional poker player accused of running a $3.3 billion illegal sports gambling operation was ordered held without bail Wednesday.

The balding and bearded James Giordano stood silently with hands cuffed behind his back at his arraignment in Queens Criminal Court as his lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Giordano, 52, was arrested Nov. 15 by FBI agents who scaled the walls of his fortress-like Florida compound. He was indicted along with 26 others, including three family members, on charges of running an online gambling scheme that rivaled casino sports betting.

Prosecutors allege that since 2004, Giordano had run a $1 billion-a-year operation involving tens of thousands of bettors and 2,000 bookies.

The bookies would assign bettors secret codes to track their wagers and monitor point spreads and results through a restricted Web site. Bets were taken on all kinds of sports, including football, baseball, basketball, hockey, car racing and golf.

Authorities said defendants laundered and stashed away "untold millions of dollars" using shell corporations and bank accounts in Central America, the Caribbean, Switzerland, Hong Kong and elsewhere.

Giordano's wife, daughter and son-in-law also were arraigned Wednesday and pleaded not guilty. Like James Giordano, they were extradited from Florida, where they live, to New York on Tuesday.

His wife, Priscilla Giordano, was released on $1 million bail. His daughter, Melissa Clarin, was released on $500,000 bail. Daniel Clarin, his son-in-law, was held without bail.

"This is obviously a significant case. We are trying to get our hands around it," the Clarins' lawyer, Roger Adler, said outside the courtroom.

Attorneys for the other defendants declined to comment Wednesday.

James Giordano, who won a Texas Hold 'em tournament worth nearly $100,000 in Las Vegas earlier this year, and Daniel Clarin were scheduled to return to court Dec. 7 for another bail hearing.

The 27 defendants, from New York, New Jersey, Florida and Nevada, were charged with enterprise corruption, money laundering, promoting gambling and other counts following a 28-month probe led by Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

Among those indicted is Frank Falzarano, a former scout for the Washington Nationals and the San Francisco Giants who is accused of being a top earner in the network. Falzarano, arraigned earlier this month and released on $500,000 bail, is scheduled to reappear in court Jan. 3.

Authorities said they broke the case open last year when New York Police Department investigators secretly hacked into a laptop computer that James Giordano had left in a Long Island hotel while attending a wedding.

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