Congressman’s wife defiant on the stand in gambling trial

A tense, argumentative Patrice Tierney testified under oath today that she still believes her fugitive brother Robert Eremian is a legitimate, albeit highly paid, software consultant in Antigua — and not the kingpin behind a multimillion dollar gambling empire that prosecutors claim.

He’s very good with software,” the 60-yer-old wife of U.S. Rep. John F. Tierney told the jury in the federal racketeering and money laundering trial of her other brother, former Florida restauranteur Daniel Eremian, 61.

Congressman Tierney, a Salem Democrat, did not accompany his wife of 14 years to U.S. District Court in Boston.

Patrice Tierney, a wedding and banquet planner at Salem’s historical Hawthorne Hotel, acknowledged depositing some $5 million in a local bank account for Robert Eremian between 2004 and 2010, but said she never questioned his line of business.

After first claiming she didn’t recognize the figures placed before her by assistant U.S. attorney Fred Wyshak Jr., Tierney acknowledged she could have written checks to herself over the same time period totaling $173,047.00 while managing the account in his absence, and never reporting it as income.

“I was being appreciated,” said Tierney, testifying under a grant of immunity from prosecution.

Tierney said she and her husband have visited the palatial Antigua headquarters of Sports Off Shore at least twice and although she saw about a half a dozen people working on computers, surrounded by television monitors—employees that prosecutors and other witnesses have claimed were taking bets night and day—she said she never questioned what was going on.

Asked by Wyshak if Congressman Tierney saw what was going on, Patrice Tierney tersely answered, “He dined there. He sat down and we had dinner—6:30, we go to bed early.”

“Aren’t those prime gambling hours?” an incredulous Wyshak asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t gamble,” Tierney fired back.

“You do know, Ms. Tierney,” Wyshak said.

Patrice Tierney is currently on supervised probation for pleading guilty to helping Robert Eremian file false tax returns claiming he was a software consultant.

She also saw no problem when her brother asked her obtain a bank check in 2004 for $250,000 made payable to Benevolence Funding—one of the alleged shell companies prosecutors assert the Eremian brothers created to cover their gambling collections.

“I didn’t understand it to be anything. I was just sending a check to my brother. I didn’t think much of it,” Tierney said.

“You didn’t think that he was donating $250,000 to charity did you?” Wyshak asked her.

“Um … it’s possible,” Tierney replied, explaining that she had used the same bank account to donate $200,000 to the Bill Clinton Foundation for disaster relief, as well as charitable donations for cancer and autism research, Santa’s Little Helpers and victims of 911.