Former mayor spent $300,000/day gambling

southsiderosie

A millionaire former mayor apparently gambled over $1 billion over the last nine years. This works out to about $300,000/day. :eek:

However, she supported her habit in part by embezzling money from a charity that supported alzheimer's research and hospice care. :mad:

The former mayor, Maureen O’Connor, 66, blamed an addiction to gambling aggravated by a brain tumor for the gargantuan spree. Her lawyers said that while she had made well over a billion dollars in bets at casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and San Diego, her actual net losses were around $13 million.

Federal prosecutors said it was impossible to know precisely how much Ms. O’Connor had lost over those years, but she emerged with her fortune gone and her health shattered. She took out second and third mortgages on her La Jolla, Calif., home to pay for the gambling.

The former Southern California political power broker, whose husband, Robert O. Peterson, founded the Jack-in-the-Box fast-food chain, appeared in court in San Diego on Thursday to answer to charges that she had stolen money from her late husband’s foundation to fuel her addiction.

She walked unsteadily into court, leaning on a cane and appearing wobbly and distraught. She teared up as she told reporters, “Those of you who know me here would know that I never meant to hurt the city that I love.”

Ms. O’Connor was not accused of taking money from the city, but the money in her husband’s trust would probably have gone to local charities. “I always intended to pay it back and I still intend to pay it back,” she said.

Her punishment? Treatment for gambling addition, and she has to pay back the $2 million.

While I generally think that US sentencing laws are unduly harsh, this seems overly lenient. At a minimum, she should have to do some kind of community service after stealing from an organization that was ostensibly set up to help the community...although stealing from a charity is so low that I can't say I would be upset to read that she received a custodial sentence. Plus, I have to think that if instead of a millionaire ex-politician she was a woman in the inner-city who got caught stealing to support her drug habit, she'd be in jail right now - not that I would agree with that, but the sentencing disparities in the US are pathetic.

And on a slightly different note, where was this woman's family? Did nobody notice that she was constantly gambling?

Praetorian Saighdiuir

Ah I'm sure they will forget all about it!

Prodigious

In fairness gambling addictions are pretty serious and I'm sure she didn't set out to screw the charities.

mark renton

Poor woman, couldnt pick a winner after they went past the finishing post.

Fox_In_Socks

southsiderosie wrote: »

A millionaire former mayor apparently gambled over $1 billion over the last nine years. This works out to about $300,000/day. :eek:

However, she supported her habit in part by embezzling money from a charity that supported alzheimer's research and hospice care. :mad:



Her punishment? Treatment for gambling addition, and she has to pay back the $2 million.

While I generally think that US sentencing laws are unduly harsh, this seems overly lenient. At a minimum, she should have to do some kind of community service after stealing from an organization that was ostensibly set up to help the community...although stealing from a charity is so low that I can't say I would be upset to read that she received a custodial sentence. Plus, I have to think that if instead of a millionaire ex-politician she was a woman in the inner-city who got caught stealing to support her drug habit, she'd be in jail right now - not that I would agree with that, but the sentencing disparities in the US are pathetic.

And on a slightly different note, where was this woman's family? Did nobody notice that she was constantly gambling?

I think that it's ok if you gamble millions or billions. The tax payer will always pick up the bill. It's the world we live in.

Now, I'm off for a march in support of Séan Quinn in Cyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaavan. God bless those Quinns.

Funk It

southsiderosie wrote: »

And on a slightly different note, where was this woman's family? Did nobody notice that she was constantly gambling?

I bet they knew alright