Casino records show more than $200K in losses on Soderquists' cards
Chicago Tribune
September 03, 2015 - 6:47 PM
September 03, 2015 - 6:47 PM
Federal attorneys spent the second day of Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist's criminal trial breaking down his financial problems.
The attorneys went through data from Keith and Deborah Soderquist's casino player cards that tracked their play from August 2007 through early 2013. The cards showed a net total loss of $245,334 after subtracting the money they won.
Clayton Mason, vice president of data and analytics for Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, Mich., said those numbers included free credits the Soderquists would have received, which typically make up about 15 percent to 20 percent of what clients gamble.
Letters that the Four Winds would give them at the end of each year to show their net wins and losses for filing their income tax returns shows both of them losing a total of $207,490 over that time period.
Federal attorneys argue that the Soderquists started using by at least spring 2010 money from his campaign re-election fund and the Lake Station Food Pantry fund to pay for the gambling trips, which included more than 700 days at Four Winds over five years, according to their player cards records. They're charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, seven counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing a false income tax return.
Mason said under cross-examination by defense attorney Scott King that other people could have possibly used the Soderquists' cards to gamble with, but the government presented a handful of other records, such as receipts for food and hotel rooms, from the casino that included their signatures.
Mason also testified that the copper player card that the Soderquists had was for clients who gambled the most amount of money and that about only 5 percent of their clients had a copper card.
Earlier Thursday, James Busch, a friend of Keith Soderquist, testified that he and his girlfriend met the mayor, Deborah Soderquist, Lake Station Councilman Todd Rogers and Rogers' wife at the casino about 10 to 15 times. He told the jury that Soderquist told him he was able to get the copper card because his brother-in-law used it when he gambled $10,000 on a table game, but the card records show a total of just $100 ever gambled on table games.
The government says the Soderquists' finances were a mess, which is why they took from the campaign and pantry funds to pay for their gambling trips. To support that, they presented records showing the Soderquists charged off at least 10 credit cards, meaning they only paid part of the balance, and left at least $29,727 of their credit card balances unpaid.
Karen Kegenbein, who worked for Curtis Complete Accounting and interviewed the mayor in order to file his 2010, 2011 and 2012 tax returns, said that he told her during their first meeting that he was insolvent.
The trial is expected to continue for its third day of testimony on Friday.
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