Two Wichita men plead guilty to tax evasion in high-stakes gambling case

A bookmaker and a poker-game manager in Wichita entered guilty pleas to federal charges of income tax evasion and operating illegal businesses tied to a broader investigation into high-stakes gambling.

Tom Beall, the U.S. attorney for Kansas, said Danny Chapman, 67, and Daven Flax, 46, could be sentenced in U.S. District Court to five years in prison and fined $250,000 on the gambling charge alone.

Names of Chapman and Flax surfaced in letters from the U.S. Department of Justice indicating their telephone calls were intercepted in 2015 in an investigation that also touched Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell, a former Republican state senator, and prominent Wichita car dealer and top-ranked poker tournament player Brandon Steven.

Steven and his brother, Rodney, were major investors in a failed bid to secure an exclusive license to build a state-sanctioned casino in southeast Kansas.

Read more: http://cjonline.com/news/business/state-government/2018-01-12/two-wichita-men-plead-guilty-tax-evasion-high-stakes