Thomas Vanek not involved in money laundering scheme, agent says
Thomas Vanek's name surfaced during a plea agreement from an alleged bookmaker in Rochester, N.Y., facing money laundering charges. Vanek's agent maintains that the Minnesota Wild forward was not involved.
By
Chris Peters
•
2 min read
Minnesota Wild forward Thomas Vanek’s name was tied to a court case involving an alleged illegal gambling ring and money laundering scheme Thursday. He was indirectly implicated when details of a Rochester, N.Y. bookie’s plea deal were reported by the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. According to the bookie’s lawyer, his client admitted to attempting to launder a $230,000 New York Islanders check around the time Vanek was playing for the team last season.
Over the summer, Vanek had been called to Rochester to speak with federal investigators regarding this case. The alleged gambling ring was run by Mark Ruff, who pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering Thursday, as well as Ruff’s brother and another area man.
Though Vanek was never technically confirmed to be involved, the Islanders check tied him to the case. According to Vanek’s agent Steve Bartlett, however, the Wild forward is not being investigated for any wrongdoing and was not involved in the laundering of that $230,000 check. Vanek was, however, a bettor paying Ruff according to his agent.
Bartlett spoke out against some of the coments from Ruff's lawyer that cast Vanek in a negative light with Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
“If you read it quickly or you listen to his comments, it almost alludes to the fact that Thomas Vanek was involved in money laundering, which is totally false,” Bartlett told the Star Tribune. “He is not the subject of any investigation or criminal charges or anything whatsoever. He was a witness against this guy who was the bookmaker. He was the guy that wanted money and Thomas paid it to him. Thomas wasn’t involved in any bookmaking activities.
“Now people are like, ‘Oh, Thomas was a money launderer.' That’s totally false. He was the bettor. He bet on football games. Obviously that’s what he was testifying to. It doesn’t take Einstein to figure that out.”
Russo also reported that the NHL is following up on the case.
“We will obviously follow up on the ‘facts’ suggested in the article to satisfy ourselves that we are on top of the situation,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told the Star Tribune.
This is certainly a complicated issue, with a lot of moving parts. However, as Bartlett says, there’s no investigation into Vanek and he bet on football, not hockey, which would draw the ire of the NHL as that would go against league rules.
Assuming the league is satisfied with their findings in the follow up to these new details, there’s little they could do discipline wise unless Vanek was also implicated in anything beyond the actual gambing.
According to the report in the Democrat & Chronicle, Ruff’s lawyer, James Wolford, said that the $230,000 was owed as part of a gambling debt that exceeded $1 million. Those kind of numbers may not cast Vanek in the most positive light, they also don't have him facing federal charges like those that allegedly managed the gambling ring.
