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TRENTON
– Criminal Justice Director Gregory
A. Paw announced that two Philadelphia men
were sentenced today for running a gambling
ring in South Jersey and Philadelphia and
falsifying a mortgage application.
Danilo
Starita, 37, and Edward Wagner, 42, who
co-own a home on South 17th Street in Philadelphia
as well as a condominium on North Coolidge
Avenue in Margate, N.J., each received a
five-year suspended state prison sentence
from Superior Court Judge Michael R. Connor
in Atlantic County, who noted that each
defendant has already served 128 days in
the county jail. Each man was ordered to
pay a $10,000 criminal fine, and they were
required to forfeit high-end plasma TVs
and stereo equipment seized as a result
of the investigation. Both men pleaded guilty
on Jan. 10 to theft by deception and promoting
gambling.
An
undercover investigation by the Division
of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized
Crime Bureau determined that Starita and
Wagner ran a gambling ring with operations
in Philadelphia as well as Atlantic, Camden
and Gloucester counties in New Jersey. They
employed agents to accept bets and collect
gambling proceeds for them. The Division
of Criminal Justice obtained a state grand
jury indictment charging the men on May
9, 2007.
In
pleading guilty to the gambling charge,
Starita and Wagner admitted that they regularly
took in more than five bets a day totaling
more than $1,000. In pleading guilty to
theft by deception, Starita and Wagner admitted
that they falsely claimed to be legitimately
employed in order to obtain a $185,250 loan
from Wells Fargo Home Mortgage to buy their
Margate condo. Both men falsely claimed
to work for ITAL-UIL, USA, Inc., a legitimate
business that assists individuals moving
from Italy to the U.S.
On
April 3, 2006, the Division of Criminal
Justice – assisted by the Pennsylvania
Attorney General’s Office, the Philadelphia
Police, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s
Office and the Margate Police – executed
search warrants and seized gambling records
at the defendants’ two residences
and a location on South 20th Street in Philadelphia
where bets were processed.
The
case was investigated by Detectives Andrea
Salvatini and Andrew Schrader and additional
investigators from the Division of Criminal
Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s
Office assisted in the investigation. The
case was prosecuted by Deputy Attorney General
Jill S. Mayer, who handled today’s
sentencing hearing.
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