The federal government filed a petition Monday to seize what it calls "an illegal gambling business" in Mabelvale and two homes -- one on Chenal Circle and the other in Alabama -- that it says the business owner purchased with gambling proceeds.
According to the petition, the Chicot Game Room at 14124 Chicot Road has been the subject of a series of undercover operations carried out by the Little Rock Police Department since January 2016, during which plainclothes officers noticed "a large number of casino-style video gambling devices."
The petition indicates that the undercover officers loaded money onto player cards that were used to play casino-style slot machines for credits. It says the credits earned on the cards were used on subsequent days to play more games or trade for prizes such as a box of golf balls estimated to be worth about $18 and a watch with a $29.99 price sticker from Kohl's Department Store.
Allan Siebert, a central Arkansas businessman who for more than two decades has been in the news several times in connection with purported gambling operations, is accused in the petition of operating an illegal business at the Mabelvale address along with unnamed "relatives and associates."
"Allan Siebert and others have conducted financial transactions with the money in a manner designed to conceal the nature, source, ownership, and control of the proceeds," the petition states. It says some of the transactions using proceeds of that money "are structured to evade reporting requirements."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron McCree said in the petition that according to bank records, between June 2012 and October 2016, cash was used to purchase more than $500,000 in cashier's checks in Siebert's name, and the cashier's checks were used to make payments on Siebert's loans at another bank.
Siebert couldn't be reached for comment Monday. A telephone number for Arkansas Charity Games Rooms at 14055A Chicot Road in Mabelvale had been disconnected and a home telephone number for Siebert wasn't available.
According to the petition filed by the U.S. attorney's office, along with a verification signed by Dan Elliott, a criminal investigator with the IRS, Siebert bought a house in 2001 at 44 Chenal Circle in Little Rock for $695,000. The initial mortgage was paid off on Jan. 25, 2005, but since that time, the document says, Siebert has taken out and paid off several other mortgages, as well as a home-equity line of credit, using the house as collateral.
Nearly $280,000 of the money used to pay off the line of credit between February 2015 and November 2015 can be traced to Chicot Game Room funds, the petition alleges. It says $23,000 of the funds passed through Siebert's personal account, about $72,000 came from payments made with the cashier's checks, and the remaining amount of about $184,500 was paid in person with cash.
Meanwhile, Siebert paid $950,000 for a condominium in Baldwin County, Ala., on May 4, 2012, according to the forfeiture petition.
It says he made a down payment of $304,750, and took out a $645,250 mortgage from Regions Bank that was paid off in January 2015. The bulk of the mortgage payments -- $562,684 -- can be traced to Chicot Game Room funds from three sources, the petition states. It identifies the sources as Siebert's banking records at Bank of the Ozarks, the cashier's checks and $31,847 that was documented as having been paid in person, using cash.
After paying off the condominium, Siebert took out a home-equity line of credit at Regions that was guaranteed by the condominium, and his repayments of that line of credit can also be traced back to the Game Room, his personal bank account and cashier's checks bought at Regions, it says.
Metro on 05/09/2017