U.S. Rep. John Tierney’s convicted wife, his late father-in-law, two brothers-in-law and stepson all had a hand in an “insidious” criminal enterprise that fed on the last dimes of compulsive gamblers, destroyed marriages and was “all about money — making money,” federal prosecutors said yesterday.
“As unbelievable as it may sound, you will see people who have literally lost millions betting on things like football ... and who’s going to win the Oscars,” assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Wyshak Jr. told jurors on opening day of the Salem Democrat’s brother-in-law Daniel Eremian’s racketeering trial.
The veteran congressman has not been implicated; however, Wyshak confirmed that prosecutors will be calling his wife, Patrice Tierney, to testify against her brother. Asked how he felt about that, Daniel Eremian, 61, lit a cigarette outside U.S. District Court and told the Herald, “I have no comment.”
Patrice Tierney, 60, is on supervised probation for helping another brother, Robert Eremian, 59 — the alleged fugitive mastermind behind the Antigua-based Internet gaming operation Sports Off Shore — falsify his tax returns.
But even before Robert Eremian took the ring international in the mid-1990s, and it was headquartered in his garage in Lynnfield, Lt. Thomas Murphy, an organized crime detective for state police, testified that SOS “was pretty sophisticated. It was much larger than what we were accustomed to dealing with.”
Wyshak said Robert Eremian entrusted his big sister to manage a $10 million bank account in Salem that was flush with gambling proceeds. Their late father, “Big Bob” Eremian, was a debt collector for the crew until Patrice Tierney’s son, John Chew, took over for him, Wyshak said.
When Chew bowed out, prosecutors allege he was replaced by Daniel Eremian’s co-defendant, Todd Lyons, 38, a marshal arts expert, licensed real estate broker and married father. Lyons “was cooperative,” Murphy said, when state police raided his Beverly home in 2006 — and troopers hit pay dirt. Murphy said the search yielded $34,318 from a briefcase, $50,000 from a pair of jeans, $3,754 from the rear seat of his brand-new Audi, $2,000 from a shoebox and another $200 from under a table.
“Like a lot of guys, he loves sports,” Lyons’ attorney, Peter Horstmann, told jurors. “He likes to bet.”
Did he notice what was going on around him.
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