Bigtime Bookmaker Busted in Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara – The exclusive enclave of Montecito, just south of Santa Barbara’s city limits, is home to a wide range of people who value their privacy above all else. From Oprah Winfrey to various hedge fund managers, banking magnates, and high-level executives with worldwide influence and wide-ranging international resources, Montecitans do not appreciate the glare of publicity limelight or law enforcement inquiry.
Stanley "Monty" Tomchin
No one fits that description better than Stanley “Monty” Tomchin, 67, who, while residing in his gated foothill manor just blocks from Oprah’s estate, has for some considerable period of time owned and operated www.pinnaclesports.com, a sports betting website that until now has avoided U.S. gambling laws through the use of offshore accounts and sophisticated and labyrinthine computer networks.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff Public Information Officer Drew Sugars, Tomchin was arrested on October 31st by deputies in his Montecito home pursuant to “arrest warrants issued by the District Attorney in Queens County, New York.” At the Tomchin home, Sugars reported to the media, “over $400,000 in cash was discovered and seized.”
Media reports indicate that Tomchin, along with partners in both Las Vegas and Los Angeles, is named along with nearly two dozen additional defendants in the Queens County indictment, including such criminal luminaries as Steven “Fats” Diano, John “Tugs” Tognino, and Jerald “Rocket” Branca. Additional defendants, according to Sugars’ media report, reputedly have relationships with “the Italian mob,” and all face a broad spectrum of charges including corruption, money laundering, and conspiracy to conduct illegal sports betting.
Tomchin currently resides in Santa Barbara County Jail awaiting extradition to New York where the charges will be prosecuted.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking, Queens County District Attorney
Read more:
Santa Barbara Independent: Sports-Betting Kingpin Arrested in Santa Barbara
Poker News: 25 People Indicted for Involvement in Illegal Sports Betting Enterprise
OddsShark: Sports Betting World Rocked by Scandal
