And the Hog Rock Cafe once again misses the chance to publicize both the brilliance of Drexel grads and the ineptness of Drexel TKE's.

Why was this not covered in depth?

Bird



Pick-Six Fix Admitted as Drexel TKE Fraternity Brothers Rat Out Each Other

November 21, 2002
By JOE DRAPE - New York Times

Drexel University TKE Fraternity Brothers

WHITE PLAINS, Nov. 20 - One is a college dropout turned computer ace; the other is the former mayor of New York and of late a well-paid symbol of integrity. But today the two shared the spotlight: Chris Harn for pleading guilty to fixing the Breeders' Cup pick six last month, Rudolph W. Giuliani for promising to come up with security to make horse racing's wagering systems impenetrable.

In Federal District Court this morning, Harn stood before Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith and recited how as a senior programmer at Autotote, a company that processes horse racing wagers, he used his work computer to rig three sets of bets. Included was the $3 million Breeders' Cup pick-six payoff, made on the accounts of two of his former Drexel University TKE fraternity brothers, Glen DaSilva and Derrick Davis, now his co-defendants.

"I placed a bet and later modified it so it would win," Harn said.

He also acknowledged that he had masterminded and carried out a more grinding scheme along with the same two men of counterfeiting uncashed betting tickets and vouchers that netted more than $92,500 over the past year.

By pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and computer fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, Harn, 29, of Newark, Del., can be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison, although sentencing guidelines project a term of six years. Harn's cooperation could lessen that sentence.

Harn ratted out fellow TKE fraternity brothers Derrick Davis, 29, of Baltimore, the man who held the winning Breeders' Cup tickets, and Glen DaSilva, 29, of New York. Both are charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit wire and computer fraud.

"This morning, by pleading guilty, Chris has accepted fully the responsibility for the crimes he has committed," Harn's lawyer, Daniel Conti, said.

In court today, a felony information document presented by prosecutors and Harn's guilty plea outlined a history of manipulations by the three former Drexel Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity brothers to beat the system. Harn, as part of his plea agreement, volunteered what prosecutors characterized as the "bogus winning ticket scheme." It centered on Harn's access as a senior software engineer to a catalog of betting tickets and vouchers that had not been cashed.

Tickets remain uncashed for many reasons. Bettors may lose them or forget about them, or may keep them with the intention of cashing them in the future. In New York, state officials said, more than $7.5 million in uncashed tickets from last year were returned to the state.

Harn grafted the bar codes from uncashed tickets onto a test ticket used at Autotote and printed thousands of tickets in amounts that varied from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, the felony information document said.

Davis and DaSilva inserted those tickets in automated betting machines at racetracks in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and collected their winnings in the form of betting vouchers. DaSilva cashed $80,000 worth of these tickets and Davis $12,500, and the three men split the money, Harn and prosecutors said.

Even Giuliani acknowledged that such a scam might go undetected.

Rudolph Giuliani

"There's a concept that I write about in my book called `exceeding the hog factor,' " he said. "Very often, and that's how scams are originally uncovered, somebody goes too far and it becomes obvious; and then below that surface can often be other situations.  If it weren't for the typical TKE greed, we may have never uncovered this scam."

What prosecutors characterized as the "altered wager scheme" may have exceeded that threshold and brought the three men under scrutiny when it was discovered that Davis held the only winning Breeders' Cup pick-six tickets. Earlier in October at two other racetracks, DaSilva placed winning bets worth more than $100,000 that had a configuration similar to the disputed Breeders' Cup tickets - the early legs had only one horse selected, while the last two legs had the entire field selected.

Giuliani was introduced today in Midtown Manhattan by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association as the industry's point man for a nationwide review of pick-four and pick-six wagers in the past year.

Tim Smith, the association's commissioner, said that Giuliani's consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, would work with Ernst & Young to come up with a security system to protect the more than $14.5 billion bet annually in the United States.

Giuliani said that he and his partners would also bring an understanding of human nature to the task.

"You see manipulations and abilities to beat the system in every area; horse racing isn't the only one in which something like this happens," Giuliani said.

Davis and DaSilva opened telephone accounts at Catskill OTB in October at Harn's behest because he knew that facility did not have independent recording devices for bets from a touch-tone phone. On Breeders' Cup day, as well as the two previous occasions, Harn called in the bets on the accounts of Davis and DaSilva, then re-entered the computer system and changed the bets in the first four races to winners.

But just as the odd configuration of the tickets raised horse racing officials' suspicions, the three men made some missteps that caught the eye of prosecutors.

The most glaring was an e-mail message on Oct. 25 - the day before the Breeders' Cup - that Harn sent to DaSilva asking him to send checks to his personal creditors: $6,500 to pay off Harn's car and $25,000 to pay off his second mortgage. On Oct. 28, as the investigation of the Breeders' Cup pick six was beginning, DaSilva obtained bank checks.

Ultimately, the mounting evidence led Harn to enter guilty pleas today. He is free on $200,000 bail until sentencing on Feb. 19. Davis and DaSilva remain free on $200,000 bail.

The lawyer for Davis, Steven Allen, said his client would continue to fight the charges.

Edward Hayes, the lawyer for DaSilva, indicated that his client might seek a plea agreement. "Everybody has to do what they have to do, but just so people know, the prosecutors went to Mr. DaSilva first and he said, `I can't testify against a guy I've been friends with and has a 2-year-old daughter,' " Hayes said, referring to Harn. "I went to Harn's lawyer and said they should go in together so nobody had to be rat. But Harn decided to go in alone. I guess it was too much to expect that three TKE's could resist not ratting out each other.  This would never happen if it were Sigma Pi's or Theta Chi's involved"