After a three-Week trial, a jury in Utica convicted Benjamin J. Viloski,
who worked as both an attorney and a broker/consultant for Dick’s Sporting Goods, of involvement in an illegal kickback and money-laundering scheme, along with making false statements to investigators.
In February 2011, Joseph Queri Jr., vice president of real estate at Dick’s Sporting
Goods, admitted that he covertly took $2 million in kickbacks over seven
years in connection with 27 new stores across the country as part of the same investigation.
Viloski, Queri and others used front entities to accept consulting and broker
commission payments on store development projects and secretly pass all
or a substantial portion of each payment on to a Dick’s officer and
employee who was involved in the scheme.
According to Syracuse.com, federal officials announced that on Friday, July 29, 2011 a federal jury in Utica convicted Viloski, 62, of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit concealment money-laundering and engaging in transactions in criminally derived property, making false statements to federal officials, and two counts of mail fraud, three counts of aiding and abetting concealment money laundering, and one count of aiding and abetting transactions in criminally derived property.
Viloski is scheduled to be sentenced on December 16, 2011. He faces a 5-year sentence for the mail and wire fraud conspiracy; a 20-year sentence for the money-laundering conspiracy; a 5-year sentence for the false statements charge; a 20-year sentence for each mail fraud charge; a 20-year sentence for each concealment money-laundering charge; and a 10-year sentence for the transactions in criminally derived property charge.
The case is being prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York and is the result of a joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany
Division and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, New York Field Office.
