Leader of Botched Dillion Stadium Plan Enters Plea

AVON, CT — One of the ringleaders in a botched plan to rebuild Dillion Stadium and bring a professional soccer team to Hartford has entered a guilty plea for money laundering, a leading prosecutor said.

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the district of Connecticut, announced that Mitchell Anderson, 52, of Avon, entered a guilty plea on Monday before U.S. District Court Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to fraud and money laundering charges stemming from a scheme involving the redevelopment of Dillon Stadium in Hartford and a plan to bring a pro soccer team to the city.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in September 2014, the City of Hartford entered into a professional services agreement with Anderson’s company, Premier Sports Management Group, to secure a professional soccer team and to develop a new, 9,000 seat facility at the Dillon Stadium location.

Under the terms of the agreement, PSMG was entitled to receive $775,000 for serving as the project manager for the $12 million plan, court documents indicate.

In February 2015, Anderson joined up with a business partner who agreed to be the majority owner of the professional soccer team. Anderson and his business partner represented to various city officials that PSMG and the partner’s consulting company had merged for purposes of completing the Dillon Stadium project and securing the team, Daly said.

Beginning in approximately March 2015, Anderson submitted invoices to the city for reimbursement to PSMG sub-contractors working on the project, Daly said. However, rather than pay the total amounts owed to PSMG’s subcontractors, Anderson and his business partner directed more than $1 million that PSMG received from the city to themselves, their businesses and other entities not related to the Dillon Stadium project, Daly said.

Anderson and his business partner also secured invoices from subcontractors who had not performed work for the project, which Anderson submitted to the city as if the work had been performed, Daly said. Anderson then illegally used the proceeds of the fraud in a series of bank transactions to pay individuals and companies for expenses unrelated to the Dillon Stadium project, she said.

Anderson pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years, and one count of conducting illegal monetary transactions, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years, Daly said. Judge Underhill scheduled sentencing for May 1, 2017.

Anderson has agreed to pay bacxk the total amount of $1,134,595.37 to the City of Hartford and two subcontractors of the Dillon Stadium project, Daly said.

Anderson was arrested on June 23, 2016, a has posted a a $100,000 bond.

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