AUSA Wants Blood in Hellinger Online Gambling Probe: Attorney Conflict of Interest?

The US Attorney’s Office in Eastern Pennsylvania wants former Nylon Magazine Publisher Don Hellinger bad and they are determined to prosecute him in connection with processing for Internet gambling companies, including the now defunct BetOnSports. 

Hellinger was charged with the illegal distribution of over $40 million in Internet gambling winnings during the years 2005 and 2006 through a money transfer company, Payment Processing, Inc.  His connection to online gambling only came about after a grand jury investigation into other alleged illicit activity.

A Gambling911.com source reveals that Hellinger is alleged to have “swindled countless numbers of elderly individuals” out of their life savings. 

“State prosecutors, federal prosecutors and the SEC has been trying to put the (Hellinger) gang in jail for almost two decades now,” our source said. 

Three of the attorneys in this matter simultaneously represented clients in the BetOnSports indictment out of St. Louis, Missouri, which was at the same time a civil fraud complaint was filed against Hellinger in Philadelphia, Gambling911.com is learning.  One attorney in the Hellinger case, Anne Dixon, reportedly represented BetOnSports defendant Tim Brown, who was among nearly a dozen BoS executives and employees charged with violation of gambling laws.  BetOnSports founder Gary Kaplan and CEO David Carruthers were charged with money laundering and tax evasion.  Carruthers is currently serving the final months of his sentence in his native England after being transferred from St. Louis back in April.

“You cannot have the same attorney representing two different clients in two different, separate federal investigations for the similar offenses committed over the exact same time span,” our source notes.

There is every indication that this US Attorney wants to make an example of Don Hellinger and his associates and is prepared to do so through Hellinger’s connection with online gambling.

- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher