John Keeler, Ex-Indiana Casino Executive, Avoids Federal Trial with Plea
John Keeler, a former executive with two Hoosier State gaming companies, entered a shamed plea in an capital of Indiana federal court Mon on a level of causing a sour collective assess payoff to live filed.
With the agreement, Keeler avoided going to trial run on fivesome other charges inwards connectedness with an illegal political share scheme that led to finances from Centaur Gaming sledding into a Republican River congressional cause calculate of a and then Robert Indiana tell senator who ran unsuccessfully half-dozen years ago. The visitation was supposed to scratch on Monday.
Brent Waltz, the former land senator and congressional candidate, was also supercharged inward the case. He entered a hangdog plea last-place week to also avoid sledding to trial.
By pleading hangdog to the tax charge, Keeler – a former res publica lawmaker himself – agreed to micturate restoration on more than $14,000 to the federal government. He also faces upward to threesome years inwards prison. Keeler and Waltz, who faces upwardly to 10 years for accepting phoney run contributions, await sentencing from US District Judge Henry James R. Sweeney II.
However, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Hoosier State said inwards a financial statement Monday, it expects light sentences for both men.
Had the grammatical case gone to trial, Keeler’s attorneys planned to nowadays photos of Keeler’s former boss, Centaur Gaming beginner Rod Ratcliff, attending President Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Prosecutors objected and asked a adjudicate to exclude the pictures from the trial.
Bogus Invoices the Conduit for Contributions
Keeler was for the first time indicted 18 months agone on charges of conspiring to pee collective contributions, making incorporated contributions, and making sour statements. Last year, prosecutors got deuce additional indictments against him on the sour revenue enhancement payoff charges.
One of the tax paying back charges was inwards connection with the Waltz run investigation. The sec charge, which was the ace pled shamed to, was connected to a different scheme that funneled money to an Indianapolis GOP political action mechanism committee.
The investigating was constituent of a larger inquiry into illegal political contributions fastened to Maryland-based consultant Kelley Rogers. In September 2019, Will Rogers pleaded shamefaced to taking millions from donors for sham political committees. As voice of his plea agreement, Rogers in agreement(p) to show inward the Waltz case.
In 2015, Will Rogers met with someone listed in tribunal records as “Individual A,” an unnamed co-conspirator who served as the CEO of Centaur Gaming. That matched the description of Ratcliff. In their meeting, authorities said a strategy was devised to funnel Centaur funds into Waltz’s congressional campaign.
The project involved Rogers’ truehearted submitting phony invoices for explore projects that were ne'er performed. Rogers, Waltz, and Chip O’Neil – another political consultant – found contributors to donate $2,700 to the Waltz campaign.
Once the fake invoices were submitted, Keeler signed turned on them, and Centaur sent the pecuniary resource to Virginia Katherine McMath company. Part of those proceeds was and so used to repay the initial donors. The task charges came into gambol after authorities discovered Keeler allowed Centaur to deduct the bastard invoices on its returns.
Local GOP Also Benefitted from Centaur
A 2nd similar connive was revealed inwards lawcourt documents. Prosecutors said that in 2016, Keeler pledged to work on with the Greater Indianapolis Republican Finance Committee (GIRFCO) on a movement fundraising military issue that also involved Carl Rogers and phony invoices.
Centaur at the time of the schemes owned Robert Indiana Grand and Hoosier Park racinos. Ratcliff, who founded the company, sold the tracks to Caesars Entertainment inward 2018. He then naturalized Spectacle Entertainment and unveiled plans to get a land-based casino to Gary.
Keeler served as a vice chairwoman and full general counsel at both Centaur and Spectacle.
The Hoosier State Gaming Commission learned of the federal investigation inward Jan 2020. Shortly after that, the IGC started its own. The IGC’s inquiry led to both Keeler and Ratcliff, a longtime Robert Indiana gaming and political fixture, losing their licenses. What’s left of Spectacle is now a nonage partner inward Hard Rock Northern Indiana.
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