\nAmy Taxin, Associated Press<\/p>\n
\tSANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) \u2013 A retired Los Angeles County firefighter pleaded guilty Monday to a federal charge of running an illegal sports gambling business that authorities said appeared to operate in part from a firehouse while he was on duty.<\/p>\n
\tRetired fire Capt. Tod Hipsher, 51, entered the plea in federal court in Santa Ana. He is set to be sentenced on June 2 and could face a maximum of five years in prison.<\/p>\n
\tHipsher netted hundreds of thousands of dollars over 12 years through an online, Costa Rica-based sports book that took wagers on the Super Bowl, college basketball games and other events, homeland security officials said.<\/p>\n
\tAuthorities said they searched Hipsher\u2019s Irvine home in March and seized $200,000 in cash. He retired at the end of 2013.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe have great respect for firefighters and first responders,\u201d said Josh Robbins, an assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing when someone in an official position, especially someone in a position of leadership and responsibility, chooses to be involved in illegal activity of any kind.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe investigation into Hipsher and his associates began in 2009 following a tip from the Orange County District Attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
\tAnother Orange County man has pleaded guilty to running an illegal gambling business on another site and will be sentenced later this year, Robbins said.<\/p>\n
\tAuthorities say Hipsher\u2019s clients bet online or used a 1-800 number.<\/p>\n
\tIn 2011, undercover agents met at least twice with Hipsher at a fire station in Bell to conduct gambling business, said Mark Speidel, a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement homeland security investigations.<\/p>\n
\tHipsher told authorities he made between $200,000 and $300,000 during the past few years, Speidel said, adding that some bettors interviewed by investigators said they had been financially ruined by the sports book.<\/p>\n
\tHipsher and federal authorities reached a plea agreement in October but he did not plead guilty in court until Monday.<\/p>\n
\tHipsher\u2019s lawyer, Victor Sherman, told the court the delay allowed his client to retire at the end of last year.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amy Taxin, Associated Press SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) \u2013 A retired Los Angeles County firefighter pleaded guilty Monday to a federal charge of running an illegal sports gambling business that authorities said appeared to operate in part from a firehouse…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}