Racketeer conviction for in-law of Tierney

The brother-in-law of US Representative John F. Tierney was convicted in US District Court in Boston yesterday of racketeering and gambling charges for running a large-scale, sophisticated gambling operation under the auspices of an Internet betting site based on the Caribbean island of Antigua.

Daniel Eremian, 61, of Florida, whose sister Patrice Tierney is married to the congressman, showed little emotion as the jury announced its verdict of guilty of multiple counts of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, illegal gambling, and related charges.

A codefendant, Todd Lyons, 37, of Beverly, was also found guilty of racketeering and gambling charges. He is the first person in the United States to be convicted under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which was enacted in 2006 to prevent the US banking system from paying Internet gambling debts incurred by US citizens.

The law was passed to discourage the very type of operation that Lyons took part in. Prosecutors say that Eremian and a brother, Robert Eremian, ran the gambling site, Sports Offshore, in Antigua, and that they illegally took bets from across the East Coast of the United States. Lyons was one of the agents who helped collect money, millions of dollars himself from 1998 to 2006, according to evidence in the trial.

“Today’s convictions should serve as a message to those involved with illegal gambling schemes that the government will apply the full weight of its resources to identify, investigate, and prosecute individuals who seek to profit from offshore gambling,’’ US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said in a statement.

After the decision was announced, Fred M. Wyshak Jr., the lead prosecutor in the case, said: “We’re satisfied with the verdict. It’s consistent with the evidence in the case.’’

Robert Eremian and a fourth man, Richard Sullivan, were also charged in 2010 with racketeering and illegal gambling, but remain fugitives.

Daniel Eremian and Lyons would not comment outside the courtroom yesterday.

After the verdicts were announced, Wyshak asked that both men be detained without bail until they are sentenced on March 8, calling them a risk of flight based on the punishment they face for the racketeering convictions. The racketeering counts allow for a maximum 20-year prison sentence, and Lyons also faces up to 20 years in prison for the additional convictions of violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act.

A detention hearing has been scheduled for Thursday, and US District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton allowed both men to remain free until then.

The jury deliberated for three full days before rendering its verdict yesterday morning. Last week, it asked the court a question that seemed to muddy the case: It wanted to know why Eremian was charged “since all the evidence seems to be related’’ to Lyons. US District Judge Patti B. Saris, who oversaw the trial, instructed the jury to continue trying to reach a verdict.

Yesterday, a lawyer for Eremian asked that each juror be individually polled, and all jurors said they agreed with the decision.

While convicted of the most serious charges, Eremian and Lyons were acquitted of multiple counts of money laundering in the 50-plus count indictment, and Eremian was acquitted of multiple counts of acceptance of financial instruments for unlawful Internet gambling, the charges under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

Lyons violated the act by accepting banking checks as payment related to unlawful gambling.

Eremian’s lawyer, Marc S. Nurik, would say yesterday only that “we’re examining the verdict and we’ll determine what, if any, motions we will file.’’

The trial lasted a month, and it came with all the drama expected from a case with connections to the wife of a congressman.

Patrice Tierney took the stand one day toward the end of the trial, and she told jurors that she had helped manage her brother Robert Eremian’s finances by using his bank account to pay his taxes, his family’s medical bills, and other household expenses while he stayed in Antigua. Millions of dollars of gambling proceeds went into the account over the years, and prosecutors said that she received $223,000 from the account from 2004 to 2010. The money, which she described as gifts, came in checks that she wrote to herself or wrote to her mother, who then transferred the money back to her daughter.

Tierney pleaded guilty last year to helping Robert Eremian file false tax returns, and she called it “willful blindness.’’ She was sentenced to a month in prison and five months of house arrest. She was released from a Connecticut prison in March.

She has repeatedly denied having any knowledge of the extent of the gambling operation her brother’s ran.

Her spokeswoman, Jennifer Flagg, said yesterday, “Mrs. Tierney is saddened by [yesterday’s] news and concerned for her brother Daniel.’’

There was no indication during the trial that John Tierney, the eight-term Democratic congressman from Salem, played any role in his in-laws’ gambling operation. A spokeswoman from his office did not return a call for comment yesterday.

The Eremian brothers have a history of crime. By the time they were in their 30s, both of them had pleaded guilty to federal drug charges. Robert was sentenced to four years in prison, and Daniel served probation. In the 1990s, prosecutors said, Robert Eremian ran a gambling business from his Lynnfield home. He was convicted of tax violations and sentenced to probation. That is when he moved the gambling operation to Antigua.

Lawyers for Daniel Eremian and Todd Lyons argued during the trial that they thought the operation was legal, because it was a proper business set up in Antigua. The business had toll-free phone lines and a website, allowing customers easier access.

But prosecutors say the brothers maintained a network of some 50 collection agents, including Lyons. Those agents shipped millions of dollars over the years to Antigua in FedEx packages.