Owners of excavating firm, pawn shop among 7 indicted on gambling charges

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The owner of a Rochester excavating business and owner of a Greece pawn shop were among seven men indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in an illegal gambling enterprise that produced more than $10 million in winnings for the operators, prosecutors allege.

Louis P. Ferrari II, owner and operator of Ferrari Excavating; Dominic Sprague and Tomasso Sessa have been charged with two counts of conspiracy, one count of transmission of wagering information and two counts of operating an illegal gambling business.

Anthony Amato, Joseph Lombardo, Jeffrey Boscarino and James Civiletti were charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of transmission of wagering information and one count of operating an illegal gambling operation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan K. McGuire said the defendants conspired to operate illegal poker games at 565 Blossom Rd. in Rochester as well as an illegal sports betting operation through the website sport700.com.

Prosecutors say Ferrari and Sprague were co-owners of the poker games, and Ferrari operated the online sportsbook, managing individual bettors and overseeing “sub-agents, including Sprague, who had their own books of individual bettors.”

Ferrari used his excavating business on Steel Street to collect cash payment of gambling losses from players and then laundered the money through the business, the indictment alleges.

Sprague collected losses and paid winnings from the pawn shop he owned on Stone Road in Greece.

Amato was the administrator for sport700.com, assisting Ferrari in the creation of accounts, usernames and passwords, and managing individual bettors and sub-agents.

Sessa managed day-to-day operations at 565 Blossom Rd. Lombardo and Boscarino were sport700.com sub-agents. Civiletti worked at the pawn shop, collecting payments on behalf of Ferrari and Sprague.

Investigators intercepted a series of calls and texts between targets of the investigation, sub-agents and individual bettors.

Ferrari generated $1,241,172 in winnings while Amato generated winnings of $8,945,629, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Law enforcement officials executed a search warrant at the Blossom Road gambling operation on April 17, 2021 and seized ledgers, website printouts and the cell phones of Ferrari and Sprague.

Former New York State Trooper Thomas Loewke was charged separately in the case for tipping off the heads of the gambling operation. He has been convicted and is awaiting sentencing.

Ferrari, Lombardo, and Civiletti were arraigned Monday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark W. Pedersen and were released on conditions. Sprague and Amato will be arraigned on Tuesday and Boscarino and Sessa will be arraigned on Wednesday.

The indictments are the result of a coordinated investigation that included Homeland Security Investigations, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, New York State Police, Greece Police Department and Rochester Police Department.

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