Former Indiana Lawmaker Accuses Federal Government of Setting up Casino Dark Money Scandal
A past Indiana state senator who spent eight months behind bars last year for taking illicit campaign donations from a gambling company's director blames prosecutors and his lawyer for his legal problems. The IndyStar detailed the unexpected claims.
The Republican legislator, Brent Waltz, served seven months of his sentence after pleading guilty to two felony counts of transferring and accepting campaign contributions and deceiving the FBI. He is now on probation.
Waltz confessed to accepting $40,500 in hidden financial support from John Keeler in 2016. Keeler, a former GOP senator and Centaur Gaming's general counsel and vice president at that time, also faced legal repercussions, receiving a two-month prison sentence, and admitting to creating a fake tax return over his role in channeling money from the business to political strategist Kelley Rogers, who was working on Waltz's congressional quest.
Innocence Stand
In a court declaration targeted at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Waltz declared his "innocence of all charges."
In his filing, he shared his belief that the case was "weak" as Rogers had told investigators that he had "deliberately concealed his unlawful conduct from [Waltz] and did not think [Waltz] knew of his unlawful conduct," mentions the affidavit.
Waltz said he had planned on contesting all allegations at trial, but feared that a jury might rule in favor of prosecutors. Therefore, he decided to accept a plea agreement that would dismiss three other charges. However, unbeknownst to him, the deal was designed to ensure his imprisonment, states the affidavit.
This agreement necessary that Waltz acknowledge accepting $40,500 from Centaur, belief that was puzzling to him, as the actual sum was less than that.
It was equally strange to his lawyer, who should have understood that confessing to lesser sums in illegal donations might have resulted in decrease or even eliminate prison time.
As per the filing, anything surpassing $40K has a "presumption of imprisonment."
Waltz alleges that federal prosecutors contrived the $40,500 figure expressly to send him to jail and that "no one present during the plea negotiations", including his lawyer, was knowledgeable of this scheme. These assertions were made by his new lawyer, Abraham Murphy, in the affidavit.
Waltz's previous counsel, Russell Johnson, admitted to not researching the legal reasoning during negotiations, according to the affidavit.
Hard Rock endeavor
Following Caesars acquiring Centaur's Hoosier Park and Indiana Grand racinos, Keeler teamed up with Rod Ratcliff, prior Centaur CEO, to start Spectacle Gaming. The venture was responsible for the Majestic Star Casino in Gary. As part of a partnership with Hard Rock International, they planned to construct a land-based casino in Gary.
In January 2020, less than a month following the announcement of the commencement of the Gary project, state regulators announced an inquiry into Keeler for using corporate funds to fund politicians.
Ultimately, Keeler and Ratcliff were ejected from Spectacle, and the revamp of the company pushed it into a subsidiary stakeholder of what subsequently turned into Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana.
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Source: www.casino.org
