Bingo operators guilty of fraud
BOISE – A pair of Idaho bingo parlor operators could face thousands of dollars in fines and federal prison time after they were convicted Thursday in U.S. District Court of conspiracy to defraud federal tax collectors.
William J. Tway, a suspended lawyer from Boise, and Robert J. Ford ran Big Bucks Bingo in Garden City, just west of Idaho’s capital. No sentencing date has been set, but both men face a maximum five years in prison and a $250,000 fine in the case brought by the Internal Revenue Service.
Between 1996 and 2004, they “substantially overstated the amount of monies that they claimed had been given to charity,” U.S. District Attorney Tom Moss said Thursday.
Idaho law requires at least 20 percent of the annual gross revenues of bingo games be given to charitable or nonprofit operations.
Tway was also convicted of filing false returns in 1999 and 2000 for the Free Speech Foundation, a foundation that at the time ran bingo games through Big Bucks Bingo.
Federal prosecutors said the foundation was a sham set up to enrich Tway’s and Ford’s personal wealth.
The men had reported about $216,000 had gone to charitable services, but prosecutors argued the money instead went to the two men.
“The bingo operation generated substantial amounts of cash,” federal prosecutors said in closing arguments. “Ford and Tway applied the cash to their own personal investments and expenses and thereby avoided the payment of personal income taxes.”
Efforts to contact Tway and Ford were unsuccessful Thursday. Phone calls to Ford’s lawyer, Iver Longeteig, weren’t immediately returned.
In 1994, the Idaho State Bar Association had recommended Tway be disbarred for improperly handling a client’s funds in a police brutality case, for dishonesty and for not diligently pursuing his client’s case. Two years later, the Idaho Supreme Court voted to suspend Tway’s license to practice law for five years. The bar association told the Associated Press that Tway has not applied for reinstatement.
In a separate case in early April, the Idaho Lottery Commission, which oversees state bingo operations, shuttered Big Bucks Bingo after the Idaho Supreme Court revoked the gaming licenses of two charities, Sons and Daughters of Idaho Inc. and United States Amateur Boxing Federation, Snake River Association, that were supposedly benefiting from the games.
The Lottery Commission had determined that Tway, who along with Ford made up the two charities’ bingo committees, was inappropriately profiting and that bingo revenues weren’t being allocated to charity in accordance with state law.
While Big Bucks Bingo had estimated annual revenue of $750,000 from running games for the two charities, the charities were paid $36,000 annually – leaving the “lion’s share” of profits with Tway and Ford, according to the Idaho Supreme Court documents from earlier this year.
“The Lottery Commission has the obligation to ensure that these operations are handled in accordance with Idaho state law,” David Workman, an Idaho Lottery spokesman, said Thursday.
“That speaks to the integrity of the games they offer and the charities they benefit.”