Rochester man sentenced for his roles in illegal sports betting ring

Date: Aug. 16, 2024

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Rochester, NY - U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that James Civiletti of Rochester, NY, who was convicted of conspiracy to transmit wagering information in interstate commerce and conduct an illegal gambling business, was sentenced to serve one year probation by Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Meghan K. McGuire and Melissa M. Marangola, who handled the case, stated that between April 25, 2019, and April 17, 2021, Civiletti conspired with Louis Ferrari, II, Dominic Sprague, Anthony Amato, Tomasso Sessa, Joseph Lombardo, Jeffrey Boscarino, and others, to finance, manage, and own all or part of an illegal bookmaking business, which had a gross daily revenue of approximately $2,000.00. Ferrari, Sprague, Boscarino, and Lombardo collected gambling winnings from individual bettors and paid gambling losses to individual bettors in cash and through online payment applications, including CashApp, PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle. After Sprague, Boscarino, and Lombardo collected gambling winnings from individual bettors, they kept a portion of those winnings and paid the remainder to Ferrari. Civiletti and Sessa also collected gambling winnings from and paid gambling losses to individual bettors in cash and through online payment applications, including CashApp, PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle. After Civiletti and Sessa collected gambling winnings from individual bettors, they paid the winnings to Sprague and Ferrari.

The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS CI), under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Thomas Fattorusso, Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Scarpino, the New York State Police, under the direction of Major Miklos Szoczei II, the Greece Police Department, under the direction of Chief Michael Wood, and the Rochester Police Department, under the direction of Chief David Smith. Additional assistance was provided by the Monroe County District Attorney's Office.

CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.