Edition: U.S. / Global

HORSE RACING; Conspirator Pleads Guilty In Effort to Cash Phony Bets

Published: December 12, 2002

Glen DaSilva, one of three men accused of nearly getting away with a $3 million payoff in the Breeders' Cup by manipulating computerized bets, pleaded guilty today to two criminal counts.

The counts involved DaSilva's role in fraudulently collecting racetrack winnings as part of schemes that unfolded before the Oct. 26 Breeders' Cup.

But DaSilva testified before a magistrate judge in Federal District Court here that he took no part in the rigging of Breeders' Cup pick-six tickets and had no knowledge of the attempted fraud before it played out. DaSilva also testified that he did not know that Chris Harn, the admitted mastermind behind the conspiracies, had also involved Derrick Davis.

Davis, DaSilva and Harn were members of the same fraternity at Drexel University.

Harn pleaded guilty last month to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and computer fraud and one count of money laundering. Davis is expected to plead guilty to similar charges Thursday.

Davis's lawyer, Steve Allen, said today in an interview: ''My client accepts full responsibility for his conduct. He was recruited by Chris Harn, who devised the scheme. He is truly sorry for the minor role he played.''

It was the first time that DaSilva has distanced himself from the attempt to alter losing Breeders' Cup pick-six tickets into winning ones.

Harn, a former employee at Autotote, the company that processed the Breeders' Cup wagers in question, has admitted his role in separate schemes that involved counterfeiting uncashed winning tickets and doctoring tickets on multiple-race wagers after several of the races in the bets involved had already been run. Harn drew suspicion after Davis placed winning bets on the Breeders' Cup pick six, producing a huge payoff.

DaSilva, whose name did not surface until the investigation was well under way, admitted to his role in the cashing of bogus tickets on a pick-four wager Oct. 3 at the Balmoral harness track outside Chicago for $1,757 and a pick-six bet Oct. 5 at Belmont for more than $107,000. Investigators have said that these were dry runs for the Breeders' Cup scheme.

The bets were made through a Catskill OTB account under DaSilva's name, but were placed by Harn. DaSilva also said he cashed thousands of dollars' worth of counterfeit outstanding winning tickets starting in November 2001 at Belmont, Aqueduct, Monmouth, the Meadowlands and Freehold. DaSilva testified that he and Harn shared in the money collected through both schemes.

''I was under the impression only Chris and I were involved,'' DaSilva testified. ''Chris placed the bets and changed the bets. I just opened the account.''

Later in the proceedings, Ed Hayes, the lawyer representing DaSilva, told the magistrate that his client did not become aware of Davis's involvement or the Breeders' Cup bets until after the Breeders' Cup.

It was unclear why Harn used Davis's account for the Breeders' Cup bets and not DaSilva's, or why he apparently never told DaSilva that another fraternity member was involved. It was also not known whether Davis and Harn had any plans to split the money from the Breeders' Cup bets with DaSilva. DaSilva declined to speak to reporters today.

Since he has admitted his role in similar schemes, DaSilva's assertion that he did not take part in the Breeders' Cup scandal itself is unlikely to elicit any leniency when he is sentenced March 11. He has not entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, but they have sent a letter to the sentencing judge recommending that DaSilva receive a prison term of 21 to 27 months with no chance of early release. Like Harn, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and computer fraud and one count of money laundering.

''Here's a young man who got involved in something he shouldn't have and he's going to take his medicine, which isn't going to be fun,'' said Hayes, DaSilva's lawyer. ''He's been saying, 'What was I thinking of?' He knows that it was a stupid thing to do. He was misusing drugs at the time and was unemployed and did some foolish things.''


The New York Racing Association will pay out a $2 million bonus next year to any 3-year-old filly who sweeps the Mother Goose at Belmont, the Alabama at Saratoga and and the Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont. The association is packaging the three races as the Triple Tiara and hopes that the series will be accepted as the filly version of the Triple Crown.

New York racing's Triple Tiara has customarily consisted of the Acorn, at Belmont, the Mother Goose and the Coaching Club, but so few fillies had been participating in all three races that the series was starting to lose its identity.