| The owners of a North Andover company pleaded guilty and were sentenced in connection with operating an illegal gaming and money laundering scheme.
William Morley and his wife Bonnie Morley used Four Star Vending to distribute illegal gambling devices – which can be described as video slot and poker machines played for cash payouts – to bars, social clubs and other such establishments throughout Massachusetts and New York. Employees of Four Star regularly traveled to these establishments to collect the proceeds from the slot machines and shared the profits from the gaming machines with the owners of the establishments.
“As a result of this collaborative effort, a very profitable, and rigged, enterprise that exploited the most vulnerable members of the commonwealth has been dismantled,” Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said in a statement. “In effect, these machines picked the pocket of countless unsuspecting patrons, including veterans, immigrants and the elderly. Along with our law enforcement partners, we will hold these defendants and any others who engage in this type of activity.”
Four Star was also supplying and servicing ATMs, jukeboxes, vending machines and other amusement devices to its customers. The company used this part of its business as a means for laundering the illegal gaming proceeds.
Authorities uncovered 200 gaming machines, approximately $1.4 million in illegal proceeds and 11 vehicles used to facilitate the criminal activity. The amount of funds seized represents the largest seizure in the history of the state’s money laundering statute.
William Morley and Bonnie Morley pleaded guilty in Essex Superior Court to one count each of keeping a place for registering bets, organizing and promoting gambling, unlawful operation of a gaming device, money laundering and three counts of conspiracy.
In addition to the Morleys, Four Star Vending employee Richard Calhoun and Anthony Mazzola, a manager at one of the social clubs operating Four Star gaming machines, were also charged as part of the investigation. The case against them is ongoing.
