10 defendants have been named in an 81-count federal indictment after it was unsealed charging the defendants for their alleged participation in crimes involving an illegal gambling operation and money laundering in Oklahoma. The indictment was announced by Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma; Jim Finch, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Andrea D. Whelan, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation.
The 10 defendants charged include nine individuals that have been identified as Teddy Dryden Mitchell; Dryden Ryley Mitchell; Billy Nick Mitchell; David Bruce Loveland; Jerry Wayne Gilchrist; Michael Lee McCullah; Justin Edward Musgrove; Richard Allen Hancock; and Gary John Gibbs. The 10th defendant is Gortation Management, S.A., a Costa Rican-based corporation.
The indictment points to the defendants as being members of an illegal gambling business that operated a number of supposed high stakes poker games and sports betting in Oklahoma City while also using an illegal Internet gambling website as part of their operations. One man specifically pointed to organizing poker games in an Oklahoma City residence was Teddy Mitchell, who together with Dryden Mitchell, Billy Mitchell, Justin Musgrove, David Loveland, Michael McCullah, and Jerry Gilchrist, performed various roles in the low and high stakes poker games while also taking in a rake from the players they would invite to play in the residence.
Mitchell was also alleged to have acted as a traditional bookmaker for his clients, taking in bets in person or over the phone, while also being pointed, together with Dryden Mitchell, as having provided his clients with access to a Costa Rican sports betting Internet website owned by Gortation Management. The company, which the indictment describes as a “clearing house for bookies throughout the United States”, also let Teddy and Dryden Mitchell serve as supposed recruiters for the site.
The indictment also describes how Teddy and Dryden Mitchell, Loveland, Hancock, Gibb, and Gortation Management laundered over $8.1 million in money that was accrued from the gambling operation, or in other words, money from their clients’ losing bets. Moreover, Teddy Mitchell was also alleged to have owned and operated a number of companies whose bank accounts were used to launder the $8.1 million that was earned from the entire illegal gambling operation.
Meanwhile, Hancock and Gibbs were specifically singled out as allegedly receiving a number of checks from losing clients that were payable to Gortation Management with the latter also being pinned for his involvement in the operation as a bookie.
Should the defendants be charged of the crimes, the two older Mitchells, Loveland, Hancock, and Gibb, could all be served a prison sentence of up 20 years each to go with a $500,000 fine. Meanwhile, the younger Mitchell, Billy, as well as Gilchrist, McCullah, and Musgrove all face less severe convictions of up to five years behind bars and a $250,000 fine. Finally, the defendants also stand to face forfeiture of the $8.1 million earned in the operation as well as 24 tracts of real property, vehicles, and cash held in other accounts.
