Tierney in Trouble: Backlash Over SOS Gambling Biz Could Still Come Into Play
Democrat Massachusetts Rep. John Tierney is among the more vulnerable incumbents this election cycle. A survey from Emerson College Polling Society gives Tierney 47 percent support among likely primary voters compared to challenger Seth Moulton’s 44 percent. There is a 5-point margin of error.
According to TheHill.com, that same survey shows Moulton more competitive in a general election matchup against Republican Richard Tisei, the presumptive GOP nominee. While Tierney lags Tisei by 8 points, with Tisei taking 51 percent, Moulton leads him by about that much, taking 44 percent to Tisei’s 36 percent.
Tierney narrowly beat Tisei in 2012 following allegations that the veteran Congressman had family ties to an illegal online gambling enterprise.
Tisei, who if elected would become the first openly gay Republican in Congress, called for a congressional investigation into the gambling controversy at the time, while Tierney said a judge already ruled he was not involved.
Tierney's wife, Patrice, however, was sentenced to 30 days in prison in 2011 after pleading guilty to helping file false tax returns for her brother Robert Eremian, a fugitive from justice. Another brother, Daniel Eremian, was sentenced to three years in federal prison for his role in running the offshore gambling ring from the Caribbean island of Antigua. The Eremian sports betting business ironically was called SOS or Sports Off Shore.
While the Congressman claimed he had no knowledge of the business, the Eremian brothers suggested otherwise, noting that he had once visited their business in Antigua.
“Dinner at my wife’s brother’s house. I don’t think that people would think that’s extraordinary,” John Tierney said at during a news conference.
But Gambling911.com can report exclusively that the house in question also operated as a call center that employed nearly a dozen local islanders.
“We had dinner with Bobby back in 2000 while visiting Antigua and there were folks manning the phones in the next room,” Gambling911.com Publisher Chris Costigan stated.
But the Congressman insisted he believed the business in question was legal despite Robert Eremian’s extradition back to the US to face tax evasion charges in 2011. Eremian would eventually plead guilty to those charges.
The Globe suggests Tierney knew much more as a review of court records showed that he was aware his brother-in-law had fled to Antigua to escape federal prosecution for illegal sports book-making, and had recruited one of Patrice’s children, John Chew, to work with him.
The Globe also notes that it was public knowledge that Eremian was under investigation since 2006.
- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com
