Ronald Uy, Structuring Financial Transactions, New York 2014

A former branch manager at a Manhattan bank has pleaded guilty to assisting a leader of an international sportsbook with structuring financial transactions.

Ronald Uy, 33, of Queens, New York, admitted to aiding Illya Trincher, a leader of an international sportsbook with ties to Russian-American organized crime, in concealing the enterprise’s ill-gotten gains.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, ‘Ronald Uy consorted with Illya Trincher, a leader of a high-stakes gambling operation with ties to Russian-American organized crime, and broke the law when he aided Trincher in concealing the enterprise’s ill-gotten gains.’

Trincher and co-defendant Hillel Nahmad ran a high-stakes illegal gambling business that catered primarily to millionaire and billionaire clients. Their business utilized several online gambling websites that operated illegally in the United States to generate tens of millions of dollars of sports bets each year.

Uy was a branch manager at a bank in Manhattan and assisted Trincher on several occasions in structuring deposits at the bank so as to avoid triggering reporting requirements at the bank.

Uy faces a maximum of five years in prison and three years of supervised release. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Furman on March 27, 2014, at 3:00 p.m.

The defendants who have pled to date have agreed to forfeit, in total, more than $66,000,000.00.

The charges against the remaining defendants who have not pled guilty are merely accusations, and they are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Mr. Bharara praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York City Police Department, and Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation.

The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

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