Gambling case intermediary gets probation

Jonathan Broome, the former assistant general manager of Lakes Region Greyhound Park in New Hampshire who was indicted with 16 other people last year in a high-profile illegal gambling case, was sentenced Thursday to one year of probation in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, according to Broome's attorney, Richard Signorelli.

Broome, 50, entered a guilty plea to one charge of wire fraud last September for his part in what prosecutors have said was a $200 million illegal gambling ring. The indictment claimed that Broome had acted as intermediary between gamblers and a rebate shop based on the Isle of Man.

Broome "had no idea he was committing a crime," Signorelli said.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York have called participants in the gambling ring the "Uvari Group" based on the last names of three of the ringleaders: Cesare Uvari, his brother Gerald, and Gerald's son Anthony. All three have been described by prosecutors as associates of the Gambino organized-crime family. Five of the 17 indicted have entered guilty pleas, including Greg Martin, a New York-based trainer who admitted giving illegal alkalizing agents to a horse.

According to prosecutors, Broome handled transactions for the Uvari Group as an employee of International Players Associates, a company founded by Richard Hart, another Lakes Region employee. Hart was also indicted, but he has entered a not guilty plea.