The Hill News

The wife of Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) is scheduled to plead guilty in federal court Wednesday to charges that she helped her brother conceal his lucrative illegal offshore gambling business.

Patrice Tierney, 59, is charged with four counts of helping her brother, fugitive Robert Eremian, prepare false federal tax returns, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Massachusetts. 

{mosads}Charges against Eremian state that he moved his illegal gambling outlet to Antigua in the late 1990s and dubbed it Sports Offshore, which included a website and telephone line for his U.S. customers. He allegedly employed "agents" in the U.S. who helped recruit customers and collect gambling deb! ts from them, funneling the money to Antigua.

The information, which was unsealed this week, accuses Tierney's wife of managing her brother's U.S. assets through a Bank of America account in Massachusetts. She allegedly kept detailed records of financial transactions related to the account and gave information to her brother's tax preparer that stated his income as commission from his job as a computer consultant.

“The defendant Patrice Tierney engaged in a conscious course of deliberate ignorance regarding the true nature of Eremian’s income and Eremian’s ownership of Sports Offshore," the information reads.

According to The Associated Press, Rep. Tierney! , who faces reelection in November, said his wife accepts "ful! l respon sibility" for turning a blind eye to her brother's business.

The AP also reported that an attorney for Patrice Tierney said that prosecutors are expected to recommend that she receive probation and a term of home confinement in exchange for her guilty plea.

If she is convicted, Tierney would face a maximum prison sentence of 3 years followed by one year of supervised release along with a maximum fine of $100,000 for each count.