Meyer certainly is a crook but I can't believe Sadoff fell for all that and wire over 45 million. Maybe meyer had dirt on him. How does someone pay to a service again and again if the first payment never made profit? Sadoff should have invested with bettingresource instead where you pay only from profit. And with someone like sadoff with that status, they wouldn't have even asked for any initial feel and would have done it pay after winning week/month/season.
Betting tout Adam Meyers sentenced to 8 years today.
<section id="module-position-PxWAiryITiM" class="storytopbar-bucket story-headline-module story-story-headline-module">[h=1]Betting tout Adam Meyer sentenced to 8 years in $45 million liquor magnate scam[/h]</section><section id="module-position-PxWAiry0iTg" class="storytopbar-bucket story-byline-module story-story-byline-module"> Cary Spivak , Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 4:34 p.m. CT March 3, 2017 | Updated 7 minutes ago
</section><section id="module-position-PxWAiryA5Ts" class="storytopbar-bucket piano-module story-piano-module"></section><section id="module-position-PxWAirzTFhA" class="storytopbar-bucket bounce-exchange-module story-bounce-exchange-module"></section><section id="module-position-PxWAiryYtUQ" class="storytopbar-bucket google-survey-module story-google-survey-module"></section><section id="module-position-PxWAir3riy4" class="storymetadata-bucket expandable-photo-module story-expandable-photo-module"><aside itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" class="single-photo expandable-collapsed">
(Photo: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
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CONNECTTWEETLINKEDINCOMMENTEMAILMORE
Betting tout Adam Meyer was sentenced to 8 years in prison Friday for masterminding a $45 million extortion/fraud scheme — a term that translates to one year for every $5.6 million he stole.
Meyer's lawyers argued in federal court that their client deserved a break because he has long worked as an informant for law enforcement. They also splashed some mud on the victim — Gary Sadoff, a millionaire Fond du Lac liquor magnate, who coughed up about $10 million in 2012 after a Meyer associate pointed a gun in Sadoff's head. All told, Sadoff was defrauded out of more than $45 million in the scheme that ran from 2009-2013.
"Mr. Sadoff is hardly pristine in all of this," said Dennis Coffey, a Meyer lawyer. Sadoff is the owner of Badger Liquor Co., the largest liquor distributor in the state. Coffey noted that Sadoff never contacted police and arranged for, guaranteed and paid off a $1.8 million bank loan for Meyer.
Neither Sadoff or his lawyer returned calls for comment Friday.
Wearing shackles and jail garb, Meyer, 44, told U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman that he "took advantage of Mr. Sadoff, who I considered a friend." The son of a retired New York City police officer, Meyer blamed his actions on his drug addiction. Meyer also faces felony drug charges in Florida.
Though he has been convicted of three other felonies, including scamming casinos out of about $6 million, he has never served time in federal prison, largely because of the numerous times he has worked as a snitch for local or federal authorities.
Once a nationally known tout, Meyer was arrested in his Fort Lauderdale home in 2014. Last year, he pleaded guilty to five felonies, including extortion, for conning Sadoff.
Federal prosecutors asked for a 12-year sentence; Meyer asked for five years.
Meyer, through his Real Money Sports, once sold betting tips on sporting events for as much as $250,000. He billed himself as the "sports consultant to the stars" and often was on radio and TV. The braggadocio claimed that his tips were correct 67% of the time and that he employed more than 100 sports consultants, including former athletes.
"None of those things were true," U.S. Attorney Greg Haanstad said when he showed a promotional video.
In scamming Sadoff, Meyer told the liquor dealer that bookies were convinced that Meyer and Sadoff were gambling partners and were equally responsible for millions of dollars in gambling debts — a claim that was a lie.
Meyer went as far as to use a Chinese accent and take on the identity of a fictitious bookie named "Kent Wong" when he would call Sadoff, demand millions and threaten violence.
After playing the role of the Wong, Meyer would sometimes call Sadoff and discuss "Wong's" demands, according to recordings of Meyer and Sadoff talking on the phone that were played in court Friday.
"Gary, Gary do you just want me to call the FBI?" Meyer told Sadoff when discussing the fictitious Wong's demand for $4 million. Sadoff rejected the suggestion. "What is the FBI going to do?" Sadoff said. "Yeah, that goes back and gets you perjury for all those other statements and all kinds of crap."
In April 2012, Meyer and Ray Batista, a Florida associate, flew to Wisconsin to meet with Sadoff. During the meeting in a Fond du Lac parking lot, Batista stuck a gun to Sadoff's head while Meyer demanded about $10 million to pay Wong. Batista was paid $200,000 and is now serving a four-year sentence for his action.
In addition to the prison term, Adelman also sentenced Meyer to three years of supervised release and ordered that he make full restitution — although it is unlikely that Sadoff will recoup the losses.
Meyer will receive credit for the 23 months he has already served because his bail was revoked in 2014 after he repeatedly failed drug tests.
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Adam Meyer created and owned Real Money Sports, an online tout service. (Photo: Framegrab from RMS website, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
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<section id="module-position-PxWAiryITiM" class="storytopbar-bucket story-headline-module story-story-headline-module">[h=1]Betting tout Adam Meyer sentenced to 8 years in $45 million liquor magnate scam[/h]</section><section id="module-position-PxWAiry0iTg" class="storytopbar-bucket story-byline-module story-story-byline-module"> Cary Spivak , Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 4:34 p.m. CT March 3, 2017 | Updated 7 minutes ago
</section><section id="module-position-PxWAiryA5Ts" class="storytopbar-bucket piano-module story-piano-module"></section><section id="module-position-PxWAirzTFhA" class="storytopbar-bucket bounce-exchange-module story-bounce-exchange-module"></section><section id="module-position-PxWAiryYtUQ" class="storytopbar-bucket google-survey-module story-google-survey-module"></section><section id="module-position-PxWAir3riy4" class="storymetadata-bucket expandable-photo-module story-expandable-photo-module"><aside itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" class="single-photo expandable-collapsed">
(Photo: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
</aside></section>
CONNECTTWEETLINKEDINCOMMENTEMAILMORE
Betting tout Adam Meyer was sentenced to 8 years in prison Friday for masterminding a $45 million extortion/fraud scheme — a term that translates to one year for every $5.6 million he stole.
Meyer's lawyers argued in federal court that their client deserved a break because he has long worked as an informant for law enforcement. They also splashed some mud on the victim — Gary Sadoff, a millionaire Fond du Lac liquor magnate, who coughed up about $10 million in 2012 after a Meyer associate pointed a gun in Sadoff's head. All told, Sadoff was defrauded out of more than $45 million in the scheme that ran from 2009-2013.
"Mr. Sadoff is hardly pristine in all of this," said Dennis Coffey, a Meyer lawyer. Sadoff is the owner of Badger Liquor Co., the largest liquor distributor in the state. Coffey noted that Sadoff never contacted police and arranged for, guaranteed and paid off a $1.8 million bank loan for Meyer.
Neither Sadoff or his lawyer returned calls for comment Friday.
Wearing shackles and jail garb, Meyer, 44, told U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman that he "took advantage of Mr. Sadoff, who I considered a friend." The son of a retired New York City police officer, Meyer blamed his actions on his drug addiction. Meyer also faces felony drug charges in Florida.
Though he has been convicted of three other felonies, including scamming casinos out of about $6 million, he has never served time in federal prison, largely because of the numerous times he has worked as a snitch for local or federal authorities.
Once a nationally known tout, Meyer was arrested in his Fort Lauderdale home in 2014. Last year, he pleaded guilty to five felonies, including extortion, for conning Sadoff.
Federal prosecutors asked for a 12-year sentence; Meyer asked for five years.
Meyer, through his Real Money Sports, once sold betting tips on sporting events for as much as $250,000. He billed himself as the "sports consultant to the stars" and often was on radio and TV. The braggadocio claimed that his tips were correct 67% of the time and that he employed more than 100 sports consultants, including former athletes.
"None of those things were true," U.S. Attorney Greg Haanstad said when he showed a promotional video.
In scamming Sadoff, Meyer told the liquor dealer that bookies were convinced that Meyer and Sadoff were gambling partners and were equally responsible for millions of dollars in gambling debts — a claim that was a lie.
Meyer went as far as to use a Chinese accent and take on the identity of a fictitious bookie named "Kent Wong" when he would call Sadoff, demand millions and threaten violence.
After playing the role of the Wong, Meyer would sometimes call Sadoff and discuss "Wong's" demands, according to recordings of Meyer and Sadoff talking on the phone that were played in court Friday.
"Gary, Gary do you just want me to call the FBI?" Meyer told Sadoff when discussing the fictitious Wong's demand for $4 million. Sadoff rejected the suggestion. "What is the FBI going to do?" Sadoff said. "Yeah, that goes back and gets you perjury for all those other statements and all kinds of crap."
In April 2012, Meyer and Ray Batista, a Florida associate, flew to Wisconsin to meet with Sadoff. During the meeting in a Fond du Lac parking lot, Batista stuck a gun to Sadoff's head while Meyer demanded about $10 million to pay Wong. Batista was paid $200,000 and is now serving a four-year sentence for his action.
In addition to the prison term, Adelman also sentenced Meyer to three years of supervised release and ordered that he make full restitution — although it is unlikely that Sadoff will recoup the losses.
Meyer will receive credit for the 23 months he has already served because his bail was revoked in 2014 after he repeatedly failed drug tests.
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