{"id":210746,"date":"2022-04-25T17:52:04","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T00:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=210746"},"modified":"2023-01-17T10:04:04","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T16:04:04","slug":"mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/","title":{"rendered":"Prison for NY Judge Who Helped Gambler Hide $10M Embezzlement From Credit Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former New York Supreme Court judge who helped cover up the embezzlement of $10 million from a nonprofit credit union by its drug-fueled, gambling-addicted ex-CEO, is heading to prison for 15 months.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Former New York State judge Sylvia Ash attends a hearing at a Manhattan courtroom in November 2019. On this occasion, she did not get to bang the gavel. (Image: New York Daily News<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In December, Sylvia Ash, 64, was convicted of obstructing justice, conspiracy, and lying to a federal agent. This was to protect Kam Wong, who, until 2018, headed up the nonprofit Municipal Credit Union (MCU), according to federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n

The MCU is New York City\u2019s oldest credit union, providing banking services to almost 600,000 municipal workers. The union\u2019s earnings are supposed to be directed back to its members in the form of more favorable rates, with fewer and lower fees for products and services.<\/p>\n

$5.5M on Lottery Tickets<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But from 2007 until his arrest in 2018, prosecutors said Wong bilked the MCU out of millions. That was to fund a crazed drug and gambling habit that saw him spend $5.5 million on lottery tickets while necking a daily cocktail of \u201cjudgment suppressing opiates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Wong would down hydrocodone pills with a bottle of codeine-laced syrup at his desk at MCU, according to prosecutors. One FBI agent who surveilled Wong testified that he would spend \u201chours\u201d in a store on weekends buying lottery tickets. His supply of drugs was provided by former New York City Police Department Officer Joseph Guagliardo, a member of MCU\u2019s Supervisory Committee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In exchange, Wong agreed to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to a company controlled by Guagliardo in violation of the credit union\u2019s conflict of interest policy.<\/p>\n

Wong is currently serving a 66-month prison term after pleading guilty in 2019 to embezzlement from a federally insured credit union. Guagliardo was sentenced to 27 months in July 2020.<\/p>\n

Obstruction of Justice<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ash served as chair of the MCU Board of Directors while she was a sitting state judge. This allowed her to take \u201crepeated steps, over multiple months to seek to obstruct the federal criminal investigation into misconduct at MCU\u201d during that period, prosecutors claimed.<\/p>\n

Ash agreed to do so with the now imprisoned former CEO of the credit union, who provided her with a steady stream of benefits from MCU, including after she was directed to resign from MCU\u2019s board,\u201d <\/strong>they said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before meeting federal agents, Ash wiped a cellphone given to her by Wong. Nevertheless, investigators were able to retrieve incriminating texts from the device.<\/p>\n

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan said Ash\u2019s crimes \u201cstruck at the heart of the criminal justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former New York Supreme Court judge who helped cover up the embezzlement of $10 million from a nonprofit credit union by its drug-fueled, gambling-addicted ex-CEO, is heading to prison for 15 months. In December, Sylvia Ash, 64, was convicted of obstructing justice, conspiracy, and lying to a federal agent. This was to protect Kam […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":253979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMCU Fraud: Prison for New York Judge Who Helped Gambler Hide $10M<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former New York Supreme Court judge, Sylvia Ash, sentenced to 15 months for helping MCU CEO embezzle $20M from credit union.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MCU Fraud: Prison for New York Judge Who Helped Gambler Hide $10M\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former New York Supreme Court judge, Sylvia Ash, sentenced to 15 months for helping MCU CEO embezzle $20M from credit union.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-26T00:52:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-17T16:04:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.02.23-AM-e1673971395694.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1542\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1003\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/\",\"name\":\"MCU Fraud: Prison for New York Judge Who Helped Gambler Hide $10M\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.02.23-AM-e1673971395694.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-26T00:52:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-17T16:04:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Former New York Supreme Court judge, Sylvia Ash, sentenced to 15 months for helping MCU CEO embezzle $20M from credit union.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.02.23-AM-e1673971395694.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.02.23-AM-e1673971395694.png\",\"width\":1542,\"height\":1003,\"caption\":\"Former New York State judge Sylvia Ash attends a hearing at a Manhattan courtroom in November 2019. On this occasion, she did not get to bang the gavel. (Image: Steven Hirsch\/New York Post)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Crime & Scandals\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Prison for NY Judge Who Helped Gambler Hide $10M Embezzlement From Credit Union\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MCU Fraud: Prison for New York Judge Who Helped Gambler Hide $10M","description":"Former New York Supreme Court judge, Sylvia Ash, sentenced to 15 months for helping MCU CEO embezzle $20M from credit union.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MCU Fraud: Prison for New York Judge Who Helped Gambler Hide $10M","og_description":"Former New York Supreme Court judge, Sylvia Ash, sentenced to 15 months for helping MCU CEO embezzle $20M from credit union.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2022-04-26T00:52:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-01-17T16:04:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1542,"height":1003,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.02.23-AM-e1673971395694.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/","name":"MCU Fraud: Prison for New York Judge Who Helped Gambler Hide $10M","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.02.23-AM-e1673971395694.png","datePublished":"2022-04-26T00:52:04+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-17T16:04:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Former New York Supreme Court judge, Sylvia Ash, sentenced to 15 months for helping MCU CEO embezzle $20M from credit union.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.02.23-AM-e1673971395694.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.02.23-AM-e1673971395694.png","width":1542,"height":1003,"caption":"Former New York State judge Sylvia Ash attends a hearing at a Manhattan courtroom in November 2019. On this occasion, she did not get to bang the gavel. (Image: Steven Hirsch\/New York Post)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mcu-fraud-prison-for-new-york-judge-who-helped-gambler-hide-10m\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crime & Scandals","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Prison for NY Judge Who Helped Gambler Hide $10M Embezzlement From Credit Union"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}