Former MGM Grand president Scott Sibella has been sentenced to a year of probation allowing the head of an illegal sports bookmaking operation to wager on properties with illicit funds and pay with cash.
The case stems from bookmaker Wayne Nix, who is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in 2022 for operating an illegal gambling business and filing a false tax return.
Sibella pleaded guilty earlier this year to violating federal anti-money laundering rules by not filing reports of suspicious transactions.
Nix had run this illegal betting operation with clients such as LeBron James' manager Maverick Carter and former MLB outfielder Yasiel Puig, which all partook in a federal investigation on the matter.
The sentence on Wednesday took place amid a similar betting scandal rocking MLB, in which Shohei Ohtani's interpreter pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud after stealing nearly $17 million from the superstar in order to pay his gambling debts.
In Sibella's case, more than six dozen letters of support were issued to the court, including by former president of the 49ers Carmen Policy, former UNLV head basketball coach Lon Kruger and others.
The district judge said that in making her final sentence, she considered the fact that Sibella fully cooperated with investigators and had no prior criminal history.
Sibella admitted in 2022 that he had turned a blind eye to how Nix may have acquired his funds, telling investigators that he had "heard that Nix was in the booking business" and he "couldn’t figure out how he had all the money he gambled with.”
“I didn’t want to know because of my position,” Sibella told investigators in 2022. “I stay out of it. If we know, we can’t allow them to gamble. I didn’t ask, I didn’t want to know I guess because he wasn’t doing anything to cheat the casino.”
