SEASON TWO EPISODE 5

POLICE COVERUP? Records that could show massive taxpayer fraud by State Police Lt. George White withheld from the PIA request

Maryland State Police Documents Show’ Investigation’ Never Revealed High-Ranking Commander Involved in Waldorf Gambling Ring; Never Compared Time-Card Records of George White That Reveals Massive Fraud of Taxpayer or Compared and Hid Results

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BY KEN ROSSIGNOL

THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY

ANNAPOLIS, MD. –

In a series of documents sought and received by THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY in a Maryland Public Information Act filing on May 16, 2022, more light is shed on the lies and deceptions involving Maryland State Police Lt George White.

White is the legislative section executive protection commander who worked directly from the State House before transferring to the Forestville Barrack.

After initial allegations of misconduct, White was promoted to the rank of lieutenant from sergeant and assigned to the Forestville Barrack, a position he claimed in a lawsuit was the worst post in the State Police.

Colleen McGuinn, an Assistant State Attorney in Anne Arundel County, was in such a hurry to dash off a letter to Maryland State Police Investigator Sgt. Kemery Hunt to tell him that a probe into the actions of George White failed to provide enough evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to prove illegal activities that she didn’t’ even bother to date the letter.

McGuinn cited the following possible crimes in her letter to Hunt:

 1) time fraud for George White,

2) theft of company property (computers) by George Fraud

(Note McGuinn didn’t notice that she injected the word “Fraud” with George White’s last name, not simply a typo but more likely a Freudian slip revealing her true feelings, but it wouldn’t be the first time that a prosecutor was bad at performing their role in a coverup in the Maryland Culture of Corruption.
(Freud·i·an slip/ˌfroidēən ˈslip/an unintentional error regarded as revealing subconscious feelings.)

3) unauthorized computer access by Judge Michael White.

John White mentioned that he/you just received some new records back from Kelly (paycheck) company that proves Mike White accessed payroll using John White’s access info and gave his own a raise.   We told them that this information should be passed on to the FBI as it would be part of the fraud/embezzlement aspect of their case.

We told them that MSP was involved simply to investigate George White and that investigation is over; in the future, if they uncover any further crimes or more evidence of fraud, they need to contact the Annapolis Police or Agt. Bender.

PROSECUTOR’S FREUDIAN SLIP; CALLS COP ‘GEORGE FRAUD’

McGuinn thanked Sgt. Hunt for all of his hard work on the investigation.

Perhaps there was a good reason that the State Police and McGuinn were so anxious to clear George (Fraud) White and to thank Sgt. Hunt for his “hard work” on the undated investigation.

 Sgt. Hunt never bothered to examine the email records of George White which would have revealed the Maryland State Police Major Derek Peck was one of the regulars of current police officers, Michael Wilson, the current Chief of the Maryland Capitol Police, retired state police senior officials, two active members of the St. Mary’s Sheriff’s Department and others involved in football pool and Garage Poker Series that last for years and required players to send their money to bet through the United States Mail.

Or, Sgt. Hunt did wade through the records of the timecards of Lt. George White and decided to blow it all off and take the easy course of action. After all, the State Police can hide the timecards behind the veil of “personnel.”

The document signed by McGuinn does not reveal if she blew Sgt. Hunt a kiss.

In 2015, U. S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein praised McGuinn for her work in sending a squad of mortgage fraudsters to federal prison when she was an Assistant States Attorney for Howard County on loan to the United States Attorney. In Rate My Professor, four of her students marked her as awesome, while one noted they would never take another course from her and her responses on grading papers were full of errors.

HIGH-FLYING ABUSES OF POWER

Anything is possible with the Maryland State Police high command that often decides to create perks for themselves which go unreported until a whistleblower blows the whistle to this writer and others.

Major Charles Hutchins, the Maryland State Police Aviation commander in 1992, would fly along on extradition flights to Florida and have the Maryland State Police pilots jog over to the west coast of Florida, where he kept a second home at Venice, and drop him off, thereby avoiding airfare or paying Maryland taxpayers for the extra fuel for the detour. I reported on the abuse for publication in ST. MARY’S TODAY, and soon after, Maj. Hutchins retired in 1993.

The major’s brother, Thomas E. “Tim” Hutchins, was later appointed Superintendent of the Maryland State Police by Governor Robert Ehrlich in 2003 after Ehrlichs first pick, Ed Norris, was indicted and convicted of theft.

Col. Tim Hutchins was also elected to the Maryland House of Delegates from Charles County and to the Calvert County Board of Commissioners in 2018. Tim Hutchins resigned in June of 2021 from the Board of Commissioners, citing health problems.

Col. Tim Hutchins was appointed Director of Homeland Security by Governor Larry Hogan in January of 2015 and resigned six months later.

  Overall, the women and men of the Maryland State Police work hard to protect and provide excellent value to the citizens of the state.

Major Derek B. Peck is the assistant bureau chief of the Criminal Enforcement Division for the Northern Command of the Maryland State Police. Chief Michael Wilson of the Capitol Police is a retired State Police Officer and is a GOP candidate for Sheriff in Calvert County.

Due to the lack of any serious investigation, it is unclear that George White was running the gambling operation from the basement office of the Legislative Security Section of the State Police due to the State Police withholding the time card records needed to conduct such an evaluation.

It is clear from email records sent out by George White that many of those participating were using their government emails and, therefore, while on the clock at their government offices.

When THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY asked St. Mary’s Sheriff Tim Cameron if he was aware that Deputies Todd Fleenor and Steven Simonds were participating in the Waldorf Gambling Operation run by George White and his father, Judge Michael White, Sheriff Cameron responded and said that he was ordering an investigation.

Within weeks, Fleenor suddenly retired, and he and Cameron exchanged barbs at his retirement ceremony with the St. Mary’s Commissioners. Fleenor also immediately filed for Sheriff against the hand-picked successor of Cameron in the GOP Primary.

POKER POLITICS: Did a probe into two St. Mary’s deputies participating in Woodville Pines Garage Poker lead to a new entrant into race for Sheriff?

Whether Sgt. Hunt or Capt. Rosemary Chappell, the commander of the Internal Affairs Division, decided to examine the records of the gambling operation in 2020 or not remain to be seen.

In an earlier response to THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY, the State Police reported that George White was cleared during the investigation. Still, they admitted the agency had reopened the probe since new evidence had come to light of George White and his father, Judge Michael White, defrauding the federal government with a PPP loan for their Woodville Pines gambling operation.

Judge Michael White says he is free to set fire to the building as he is an owner of the company

Editors Note: Judge Michael White cannot set fire to the rented offices of Compass Marketing as the company did not own the building. Judge White is on the ballot for re-election as an Orphans Court Judge in 2022 and faces a Judicial Disabilities hearing on June 10, 2022.

 The two employees listed picked up $28,000, which was provided due to not having jobs during the pandemic even though both were employed. George White never suffered a salary disruption. They could both be charged with perjury to obtain the forgiven loan.

 If gamblers got PPP loans, did such loans go to hookers as well?

The evidence portrays Woodville Pines LLC as more than a cigar-puffing, a whiskey-drinking night of friendly poker. Instead, the organized gambling operation run for several years from the Maryland State House by the legislative security director George White appears to be a money-laundering operation that reaches its tentacles into myriad other financial schemes which may involve millions of dollars.

WINKIN’, BLINKIN, & NOD

On April 10, 2020, Captain Rosemary Chappell, commander of the Internal Affairs Division, wrote to Sheriff Ronald Bateman, the special assistant to Compass Marketing CEO John White, and stated the dual investigation into George White was closed as ‘unfounded,’ which is about what any citizen should expect from a police agency investigating itself.

 Thus in 2020, the Maryland State Police found the complaints made by Compass marketing about George White to be unfounded.

Still, in 2022, in response to a request to Colonel Woodrow Jones about any current investigation into George White, Colonel Jones sent a reply that a new probe was underway. 

A new request for information on May 16, 2022, about any recent investigation of George White, stated on May 20, 2022, that the 2020 information that the state police provided was the only probe into George White, contradicting their earlier response.  

Does that mean that Colonel Jones doesn’t know what the heck is going on in his agency or that his command staff is lying to him, or is the entire agency fraught with corruption? The answer has to be in there somewhere.

The request to Colonel Jones for the timecards of George White from 2015 forward was denied, but if the State Police would bother to look at those records themselves and assign a crack investigator such as Sgt. Kemery Hunt to once more review those records, a different conclusion might result. But then we have that problem of higher-ranking State Police officials taking part in the gambling operation. Sgt. Hunt sure wouldn’t want to be assigned to Forestville.

FROM THE FBI: Gambling on sports events

TOP STATE POLICE OFFICIAL SUGGESTS RETALIATION AGAINST SHERIFF BATEMAN AND JOHN WHITE BUT URGES GETTING ANOTHER AGENCY TO DO THE DIRTY DEED, SO IT WON’T LOOK LIKE RETALIATION

THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY has obtained a copy of a report labeled CONFIDENTIAL at the top. This is this writer’s favorite type of report issued by police bureaucrats for several reasons.

First, the report obviously didn’t stay confidential. Had it been labeled ‘just another waste of tax money on boring stuff,’ no one would ever have seen it.

Second, this particular report shows the mentality and potential criminality of Maryland State Police Captain Gary Mounts, who advocates the prosecution of the victim rather than the investigation of a fellow top commander of the state police.

Third, since the report was issued nearly two years ago, it shows that other police agencies are not as stupid as Captain Mounts as no such action has yet been taken. Maybe as an inducement, Mounts could offer a complimentary ride in a State Police helicopter to some police department headed up by one of his pals who is a retired MSP officer. Then they could start issuing search warrants and getting wiretaps signed by one of the many Maryland Judges who will sign anything.

ARE FOOTBALL POOLS ILLEGAL

With Lt. George White operating a multistate football pool from his State House offices, the question arises as to the legality. One warning to players in the pools operated by George White and Anthony Sparrow warns the players about using certain trigger words that PayPal has warned could cause the account to be suspended.

 This article from Forbes makes it pretty clear that the activity is illegal.

From the perspective of black-letter law, in most states, a contest such as a Super Bowl squares pool (or boxes pool) would be deemed to constitute an illegal lottery if the contest involved three elements: consideration (generally an entry fee), prize and chance. Because Super Bowl squares pools involve randomly assigned numbers rather than numbers chosen by the contest entrants, these pools certainly would be found to be games of chance. Thus, so long as a Super Bowl squares pool includes both an entry fee and a prize, as a technical matter, it is illegal for a private individual, without a license to host a contest of this nature.

Beyond these state law risks, Super Bowl squares pools also may fall on the wrong side of various federal laws. For example, under the Interstate Wire Act of 1961, it is illegal for individuals to engage “in the business of betting or wagering [through the knowing use of] a wire communication for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce.” Thus, any Super Bowl squares pool that is conducted across state lines and includes at least one state in which the underlying activity is illegal would seem to violate the Wire Act.

Wichita Man Charged With Operating Gambling Businesses

WICHITA, KAN. – A Wichita man was charged on February 12, 2018, in federal court with operating illegal gambling businesses, U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said.

Jack Oxler, 41, Wichita, Kan., was charged with one count of operating an illegal poker gambling business and one count of operating an illegal sports betting business.

If convicted, he faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count. The FBI, the Wichita Police Department, and the Internal Revenue Service investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Smith and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Furst are prosecuting.

Three men admit participation in a gambling operation

Guilty pleas include prison time, $650,000 in forfeiture, and restitution

AUGUSTA, GA:  On March 19, 2021, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia announced that two Waynesboro, Ga., men and a Greenwood, S.C., man have admitted to federal charges for participating in a longtime illegal gambling operation.

Grady Brandon Mobley, 44, and Daniel Cates, 50, both of Waynesboro, Ga., and  Joel Rees, 59, of Greenwood, S.C, entered guilty pleas to Informations charging each of them with Prohibition of an Illegal Gambling Business, said David H. Estes, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. Mobley also pled guilty to Fraud and False Statements.

In accordance with the plea agreement, Mobley faces a negotiated sentence of 12 months plus one day in federal prison, and has forfeited $340,084. He also agrees to pay $207,716 in restitution to the IRS and Georgia Department of Revenue, and a fine of $2,000. Cates agreed to the forfeiture of $100,000.

After plea hearings before U.S. District Court Chief Judge J. Randal Hall, each of the three men were released on bond pending sentencing and formal acceptance of the plea agreement at a later date.

“These men participated in an illegal gambling operation for at least a decade in the Waynesboro area, eventually funneling business through a foreign-based website,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Estes. “But even that offshore venture wouldn’t keep them out of the reach of diligent law enforcement professionals who turned the tables on this illicit operation.” 

As described in court documents and testimony, Mobley operated as a “bookie” for an illegal sports betting operation for at least the past 10 years in Burke County, at first collecting bets and paying out winnings himself, and later through a sports betting website operated from Costa Rica.

In 2015, Mobley merged his operation and began splitting his profits with a smaller gambling ring operated by Jones. From 2015 to 2017, Mobley cashed bettor’s checks totaling approximately $220,000 at his parent’s check-cashing business which operated out of the Mobley Package Shop in Girard, Ga. To help conceal the growing amount of cash involved in the transactions, Mobley enlisted the assistance of Cates, who admitted that he funneled approximately $250,000 in gambling proceeds through his Waynesboro tire store, Cates Firestone, in return for money and favors from Mobley.

During this period, Mobley admitted filing false information on his income tax returns to conceal the amount of proceeds from the illegal gambling operation.

“No matter how hard these defendants tried to hide their illegal operation, their greed ultimately caught up with them,” said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “FBI agents will pursue criminal activity that violates our Constitution, no matter where an investigation takes them, and along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office will hold them accountable.”

“Schemes concealing funds in order to evade income tax, such as those utilized by Mobley, are unfair to every taxpayer who obeys the law and pays their fair share,” said IRS-Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge James E. Dorsey. “The public should know that IRS-Criminal Investigation will do everything we can to hold individuals accountable for their actions.”

The case is being investigated by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigations, and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tara M. Lyons and Asset Recovery Unit Chief Xavier A. Cunningham.

The site was equipped with poker tables, a cabinet for valuables and poker chips, video surveillance equipment, liquor, and snacks. Staff included dealers, someone serving food, and a waitress serving drinks and giving massages to the players.

Retired Highway Patrol Trooper Convicted Of Lying to FBI about Gambling

WICHITA, KAN. – A retired highway patrol trooper was convicted on May 1, 2018, on a charge of lying to the FBI during an investigation into illegal gambling in Wichita, U.S. Attorney Stephan McAllister said.

Michael Frederiksen, 53, Derby, Kan., was convicted in a jury trial on one count of making false statements to FBI investigators. During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that in 2014, while Frederiksen was still a Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper, he was filmed taking part in an illegal cash poker game. On Feb. 23, 2017, he was interviewed by FBI agents investigating illegal gambling businesses in Wichita.

The FBI had a video of Frederiksen playing in an illegal cash poker game held on Feb. 12, 2014, at 922 1/2 E. Douglas in the Old Town district of Wichita. The site was equipped with poker tables, a cabinet for valuables and poker chips, video surveillance equipment, liquor, and snacks. Staff included dealers, someone serving food, and a waitress serving drinks and giving massages to the players.

An undercover investigator was at the game posing as a gambler. At one point, the undercover officer tried to use his phone to take photos. The men running the game took him aside and told him he was making other players nervous. They allowed the undercover officer to continue playing but moved the game to other locations after that night.

During an FBI interview, Frederiksen made false statements, downplaying his involvement in illegal poker and his relationship with the operator of the poker game.

Bookmaker to forfeit $600k and pay $200k as restitution for running illegal gambling operations, laundering proceeds, and filing a false income tax return

 Justin Herdman, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced on July 8, 2020, that Ryan Driscoll, age 48, of Aurora, was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to forfeit $628,950.00 in cash seized during a search warrant and pay $208,693.00 to the IRS as restitution after entering a plea of guilty on January 15, 2020, to running an illegal sports gambling business with others, laundering the proceeds and filing a false income tax return.

“Not only did this individual try to enrich himself illegally, but he also attempted to avoid paying taxes on these ill-gotten proceeds in order to further profit and conceal his crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman. “This substantial forfeiture and restitution reflect the nature and great lengths that Driscoll went to avoid paying his duly owed income taxes.” 

“Individuals are required to pay taxes on all sources of income, even income earned from illegal gambling,”

Bryant Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.

“Individuals are required to pay taxes on all sources of income, even income earned from illegal gambling,” said Bryant Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office. “Ryan Driscoll also attempted to launder the profits from his offshore illegal gambling business, but the IRS followed the money trail, which was vital to dismantling his criminal conduct.”

According to court documents, from July 2015 to August 2019, Driscoll operated as a bookmaker for his clients and provided them with access to offshore sports gambling websites. The websites allowed Driscoll’s clients to place bets on sporting events and track wins and losses and monies due. Driscoll paid out winnings and collected losses locally. During this time, Driscoll concealed the fact that the majority of his income came from the illegal gambling business and hid the proceeds as large bundles of cash in $10,000 increments in his home.

In 2019, Driscoll made a payment for membership at “The Mayfield Sand Ridge Club” country club using the proceeds from the illegal gambling business. This transaction was designed to conceal and disguise the nature and source of the illegal funds. Between 2014 and 2017, Driscoll also deposited approximately $167,827.00 in cash into his personal bank accounts and used an additional $197,879.00 in cash and money orders to make payments on vehicles and his country club membership.

For the tax years 2014 through 2017, Driscoll underreported his income by approximately $825,323.00, which resulted in additional tax due and owing of approximately $208,693.00. In 2018, Driscoll knowingly submitted a false income tax return that grossly underreported his income and failed to disclose proceeds made from the illegal gambling business.

This case was investigated by the IRS-Criminal Investigation and U.S. Secret Service. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alex A. Abreu, Robert E. Buford and James L. Morford and former U.S. Attorney Carmen E. Henderson.