Braintree Man Charged With Running Illegal Betting Operation

Information in this article is from the Attorney General’s office. Arrests and charges mentioned do not imply conviction.

A Braintree man has been charged as the leader of a multimillion-dollar sports betting operation in the Boston and South Shore area.

John Woodman, age 43, of Braintree, was indicted this week by a Statewide Grand Jury in connection to organizing this criminal network, according to the Attorney General’s office. Woodman was charged with money laundering, organizing and promoting illegal gambling, registering bets, using a phone to register bets, delivery to/from a person engaged in illegal gambling, and conspiracy to register bets.

According to investigators, yearly profits for the operation were over $3 million and about $6 million worth of bets were placed between May 2014 and May 2015.

“These charges are the culmination of a thorough, months-long joint investigation that uncovered an extensive illegal gambling operation in Massachusetts,” Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. “These defendants amassed a network of bettors in a multimillion dollar enterprise that utilized an off-shore betting website for their bookkeeping in an attempt to circumvent state gambling laws. We thank the Massachusetts State Police and all of the other federal, state, and local agencies that assisted us in dismantling this organized crime operation.”

Woodman is accused of maintaining a network of more than 30 agents who took illegal bets from more than 700 bettors in Massachusetts. Those agents then provided bettors with accounts on an off-shore sports betting website called PerHead, which allowed the bettors and agents to register and track bets. Authorities allege that the agents would then directly collect debts or pay winnings to the bettors in person.

Frederick Stevenson, 54, of Quincy, is alleged to have been Woodman’s master agent, overseeing the accounts and managing most of the agents. Keefe Sheppeck was a sub-agent, who also had his own agents under him. Daniel Conway acted as the enforcer of the organization and would collect money from gamblers who fell behind on their debts, and would often pursue bettors who weren’t paying. Some bettors owed more than $100,000 in debts during the time of this investigation. Bettors who owed money were pursued aggressively at work and home, resulting in at least two of them moving out of state.

Another Braintree resident, Daniel McCabe, 35, was charged with registering bets, using a phone to register bets, and conspiracy to register bets.

Overall, 33 people were indicted on 122 counts in connection to the operation.