Top Cantor gaming boss under federal scrutiny, Wall Street Journal reports

Lee Amaitis, President & CEO Cantor Gaming, makes a few remarks during the grand opening of The Cantor Sports Book at Silverton, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012.

Federal prosecutors are probing whether Cantor Fitzgerald LP’s top gaming boss participated in his company taking illegal sports bets from a New York gambling ring called the “Jersey Boys,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Lee Amaitis, the executive reportedly under investigation, founded Cantor Gaming nine years ago. His alleged involvement came to light, the Journal reports, after Michael Colbert, a former director of risk management and vice president with Cantor Gaming in Las Vegas, pleaded guilty to knowingly accepting illegal wagers.

Colbert, 33, entered his plea Sept. 21 in federal court in New York.

No allegations of wrongdoing have been made against Amaitis, according to the Journal.

Robert Hubbell, Cantor Gaming’s spokesman, released a statement on the matter today.

“We feel compelled to address this irresponsible and baseless rumor,” Hubbell said. “The notion that Lee Amaitis is a target of federal prosecutors or that he participated in illegal bookmaking is baseless and false.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the eastern district of New York filed charges in August against Colbert.

Colbert was accused of knowing about and allowing a New York-based illegal gambling operation known as the “Jersey Boys” to place illegal bets through the use of “runners,” according to a court document filed by U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch.

Gaming

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