Copyright Joliet, IL Patch
The man and his associates ran the business from his Santa Monica condo, prosecutors said. SANTA MONICA, CA — A Santa Monica man was sentenced to nearly two years in federal prison for cheating on his taxes and laundering money in connection to an illegal sports betting business he ran. As part of a plea agreement, Christopher King pleaded guilty to tax evasion, operating an unlawful gambling business, unlawful monetary transactions and acceptance of a financial instrument for unlawful internet gambling, according to court records obtained by Patch. In addition to his prison sentence, he was required to forfeit $10 million and pay $3.8 million to the Internal Revenue Taxes in connection to underestimating his income by $13.59 million between 2019 and 2022. Between 2015 and May 2024, King and his coconspirators used a Costa Rica-based website to handle sports bets from customers, according to prosecutors. He ran the bookkeeping business out of his Santa Monica condominium. King or an associate made payments to customers who won bets and collected debts from those who lost, prosecutors said. For example, in October 2022, he received a check from a bettor made payable to him for $84,500. He deposited the check in his business checking account and two days later wrote a $50,000 check to a contracting company, with whom he regularly did business with developing real estate in the Los Angeles area, prosecutors said. He also laundered money through a gold dealer: He bought gold himself and directed the dealer to pay third parties on his behalf. In one instance, he directed the dealer to pay $400,000 to the contracting company, prosecutors said. Between 2019 and 2022, King hid more than $13.5 million of income from the IRS. On his 2022 return, King reported $143,258 in taxable income but in reality, he earned more than $5 million that year, according to court documents.
