Bookmaker Daniel Dinner, whose services were used by several high-profile members of the local sports community, pleaded guilty to income tax evasion in U.S. District Court in Denver on Wednesday.
Dinner, 61, who was sentenced to six years probation last year for a gambling-related charge, faces up to three years in federal prison for filing a false tax return.
He is scheduled to be sentenced by District Judge Robert E. Blackburn on Aug. 8.
Dinner booked bets in the metro area and online while filing tax returns that reported legitimate income from an agricultural business owned by a family trust. He didn’t report the money he made from gambling.
In March 2011, agents executed a search warrant and recovered about $1.2 million in cash from his properties and safe deposit boxes.
The money came from both legitimate and illegitimate sources. Dinner owned two homes with a total assessed value of more than $1 million, according to Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver.
As part of his plea agreement, Dinner has agreed to pay the Internal Revenue Service $165,193 for taxes he dodged.
“While illegal sports betting is not a legitimate business, the income the defendant received is still taxable,” said U.S. Attorney John Walsh. “In this case the defendant faces criminal consequences for not declaring all of his income to the IRS and for not paying his income tax.”
During his sentencing in First Judicial District Court in Golden last May, Dinner’s lawyers said he struggled with gambling and sex addiction, spent years in 12-step programs and had gone through a mental breakdown.
Prominent local figures who were among his clients included Steve Sander, Denver’s director of strategic marketing and a member of the Metro Denver Sports Commission’s board of directors at the time; former Denver Post sports reporter and columnist Jim Armstrong; and then-managers of the Blake Street Tavern and Sports Column bars in Lower Downtown, according to the grand jury indictment.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671, tmcghee@denverpost.com or
