The U.S. Attorney’s office of Chicago has charged an American with conducting an illegal sports gambling operation based in Costa Rica, according to a 14-count indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Chicago, on October 11th. The accused was operating under the names Michael Frontier, Ira Goldberg, Brian Seagel, and Mathew Sullivan. He is also accused of hiding his personal gambling profits in bankruptcy proceedings in Illinois. Frontier apparently paid a service fee to a sportsbook firm for the use of its platform in Costa Rica, and paid or collected cash from the bettors directly, while providing them with personal gambling accounts based in San Jose, Costa Rica.

The indictment charges the 35-year old Frontier with five counts of money laundering, five counts of making a false statement in a bankruptcy case, two counts of bankruptcy fraud, one count of conducting an illegal gambling business, and one count of making a false declaration before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Frontier allegedly fraudulently obtained a U.S. Bankruptcy Court order discharging all his debts – including a $1.5 million civil judgment against him for negligence in a motorcycle accident in Illinois. A DuPage County judge had ordered Frontier to pay a man who crashed a motorcycle that Frontier had repaired, but was not repaired properly, and caused an accident with severe bodily injuries. Frontier never reported his Costa Rican gambling profits, telling the court he was barely scraping by with occasional painting odd jobs and carpentry work. He settled the motorcycle negligence case for $4,500, according to court records.

Frontier served as a bookie for a handful of Chicago gamblers, who told investigators they lost tens of thousands of dollars they placed on bets with him between 2011-2016, according to an affidavit from the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) agent in charge of the case. Not all gamblers Frontier worked with were willing or available to come forward to testify against him, as often happens in a legal case spanning two countries. Sportsbook gambling is legal in Costa Rica, but has gained a tarnished image after the recent kidnap and death of William Sean Creighton, owner of 5 Dimes.
Each of the five money laundering counts against Frontier carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. His arraignment has not yet been scheduled.

The online sportsbook news service calvinayre.com commented about Frontier’s case, “It’s highly doubtful a judge will throw the whole lot at him, but it’s a safe bet that he’s going to have several long concurrent sentences handed down.” This might be one of Frontier’s few safe bets in his short career

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