Boston, Mass. - An Information was unsealed late today charging PATRICE TIERNEY with four counts of aiding and abetting the filing of false federal tax returns. Tierney is scheduled to plead guilty in federal court tomorrow, October 6, 2010 at 3:30 P.M. before United States District Court Judge William G. Young.

Tierney, 59, of Salem, was charged in a 4 count Information for her role in assisting her brother’s preparation of false federal tax returns which concealed, among other things, her brother’s operation of an illegal gambling business. According to the Information, Tierney is the sister of Robert Eremian who was recently charged, along with Tierney’s other brother Daniel Eremian, with racketeering, money laundering, operating an illegal gambling business, use of wire communication facilities to transmit wagering information, interstate travel in aid of racketeering, false tax returns, witness tampering, and acceptance of financial instruments for unlawful Internet gambling. Also charged in that racketeering indictment were co-defendants Richard Sullivan of St. John’s, Antigua and Marblehead and Todd Lyons of Beverly. Robert Eremian and Sullivan are currently federal fugitives.

Charges against Robert Eremian alleged that he moved the headquarters for his illegal gambling business from Massachusetts to Antigua during the late 1990's where he operated Sports Offshore, an internet site and toll free telephone line, to service his U.S. customers. Eremian allegedly employed dozens of “agents” in the United States who recruited customers and collected gambling debts, forwarding the proceeds to Eremian in Antigua.

The Indictment against Robert Eremian also alleges that he engaged in a number of money laundering schemes to disguise the fact that the money coming from the United States was for the payment of gambling debts owed to Sports Offshore and that he created numerous fictitious entities to launder the proceeds of his illegal gambling activities, including Antiguan shell companies named Benevolence Funding, Ltd. and DeSoto, Ltd. The Indictment further alleges that Eremian funneled millions of dollars that constituted illegal gambling proceeds to family members in the United States.

The Information unsealed yesterday alleges that Tierney managed Robert Eremian’s U.S. based finances through a Bank of America bank account in the District of Massachusetts that was funded by Robert Eremian with the proceeds of illegal gambling activities. Tierney maintained detailed records of financial transactions involving this account which were used to prepare Robert Eremian’s tax returns. Tierney provided information to Eremian’s tax preparer that mischaracterized Eremian’s income as commissions and Eremian’s employment as a computer consultant. The Information states, “The defendant Patrice Tierney engaged in a conscious course of deliberate ignorance regarding the true nature of Eremian’s income and Eremian’s ownership of Sports Offshore.”

If convicted, Tierney faces a maximum sentence of 3 years in prison to be followed by one year of supervised release, and a fine of up to $100,000 on each of the false tax return counts.
U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, William Offord, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal
Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation - Boston Field Office and Colonel Marian McGovern,
Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police made the announcement today. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Fred M. Wyshak, Jr. and Robert Fisher of Ortiz’s Public Corruption & Special Prosecutions Unit.

The details in the Information are allegations. The defendant is presumed to be innocent
unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

 

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