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Bingo raid figure now lawsuit target
Columbus charity says its name used as a front for scam
By Jim DeBrosse
Dayton Daily News
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
A principal suspect in last Tuesday's police raid of 19 homes and businesses involved in bingo operations in Montgomery and Greene counties has been sued by a Columbus area charity alleging that its name was used as a front for a bingo racket.
Eagle's Nest Ranch and Academy, an alternative school for troubled youths in Canal Winchester, charged in a lawsuit filed Friday in Greene County Common Pleas Court that Michael S. York of Xenia was part of an enterprise that used the school's name and tax identity to earn money illegally through bingo.
Last week, 19 locations were served search warrants by a multijurisdictional task force of local police and investigators from the state Attorney General's organized crime division. Among the targets were York's Xenia home, his Kettering business office and the South Dayton School complex in Moraine where he heads three school boards.
More than 100 police officers in the raids confiscated gambling equipment, computers and papers, filling seven warehouse storage rooms, as well as an undisclosed amount of cash. No arrests or charges have been made, although bank assets have been frozen, investigators said.
Investigators said bingo operators in Montgomery and Greene counties diverted millions of dollars during three years to private companies set up to siphon off the majority of bingo earnings.
Scott Wayland, president of Eagle's Nest, said Monday that when he took over that office in November 2002, he was informed by past President H. David McIlrath that the academy could count on $300,000 a year in bingo revenues. Wayland soon learned that the money was tied up for several years in "start-up" costs for the bingo operators, including York.
Eagle's Nest serves 100 learning disabled students who work toward their high school diplomas while tending to ranch and farm animals, including 150 horses and 100 head of cattle.
The lawsuit names as defendants York and his business, Michael S. York and Associates Inc.; David Joe May of Administrative Dynamics Inc. of Xenia; and McIlrath, past president of Eagle's Nest. None of the three has a listed phone or business number.
Their attorney, Richard Boucher of Dayton, said Monday he had not yet reviewed the lawsuit and couldn't comment.
Wayland said that when he began to inquire about the arrangement between the academy and the bingo operators in November 2002, he was visited by York and his business associate, Larry Parr, owner of Mr. Bingo in Moraine. Parr's Miamisburg home and Moraine business location also were targets in last week's police raid.
Wayland said he asked to see the financial records and other documents related to the bingo fund raising for the academy. He said York promised to mail them, but then sent a letter three weeks later saying that Wayland would have to put all his requests in writing.
A month or so later, Wayland said, he heard from May, who said he was a minister whose company had purchased the rights to the academy's bingo operations.
Wayland said he told May that he and the academy wanted nothing to do with his bingo operation and immediately contacted the state Attorney General's Office in Columbus. In March 2003, at the insistence of the academy, May's bingo operation in Columbus was shut down by the state attorney general.
In November 2003, May sued Eagle's Nest and Wayland, claiming the academy failed to pay $200,000 in fees for "providing management, marketing and operations advice."
Attached to the November lawsuit is a copy of York's "business administration agreement" with the academy, apparently signed by McIlrath on March 16, 2002. In addition, there is a two-page document showing that May purchased the agreement from York for $1. Neither document mentions the word "bingo."
Under Ohio law, all proceeds from bingo must go to charity.
The academy's countersuit charges that the earnings claimed by York and May are fraudulent, that their bingo operation was illegal and that York and May were part of a "racketeering influenced and corrupt organization."
Wayland said the academy not only has lost its expected bingo income but now faces thousands of dollars in legal costs. He said the academy can't operate its own bingo fund-raiser until the legal issues are resolved.
Contact Jim DeBrosse at 225-2437.
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