(Bloomberg) -- A former minor league baseball player and a California check-cashing company face charges for allegedly taking part in an illegal multimillion-dollar gambling operation that involved current and former professional athletes.
U.S. prosecutors in Los Angeles charged former minor league baseball player Wayne Joseph Nix and his partner Edon Yoshida Kagasoff with conspiring to operate an illegal sports gambling business and website. Nix was also charged with failing to report almost $1.5 million in income, to which he admitted this month in a plea agreement, prosecutors said.
Nix allegedly employed three former Major League Baseball players to help with his business. According to his plea agreement, he also received payments for gambling losses of a professional football player, a Major League Baseball coach and a baseball analyst. None of those individuals were named by the prosecutors.
A sports broadcaster told Nix he'd refinance his home to pay off his gambling debts, according to prosecutors. In 2019 Nix took a $5 million bet from one individual on the outcome of the Super Bowl, prosecutors said.
According to the government the gambling operation began in 2014 and lasted until February 2020. Nix admitted to taking in more than $2,000 a day through websites and a call center controlled by Sand Island Sports in Costa Rica.
Two customers of the gambling operation cashed at least $18.35 million in checks at Sherman Oaks Check Cashing, according to the government. The check-cashing business agreed not to file currency transaction reports, required for transactions of more than $10,000, prosecutors said. The company pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective money-laundering program and to pay a $500,000 fine, prosecutors said.
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