On Wednesday, a former Indiana lawmaker accused of promoting a bill that favored a casino company in exchange for employment promises has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison by a federal judge in Indianapolis.
In November, Sean Eberhart, a former state Representative, admitted to conspiring to commit fraud and agreed to pay $60,000 in restitution, which is about the same amount he earned annually as a legislator. Although he could have faced up to five years in prison, prosecutors suggested a more lenient sentence as part of his plea deal.
Pat Cotter, Eberhart’s lawyer, chose not to provide any comments on the sentencing to The Associated Press through email.
After serving for 16 years, Eberhart, a Republican, stepped down from his position as the representative of House District 57 in central Indiana in November 2022.
In 2018, court documents revealed that Spectacle Entertainment was in the process of acquiring two Lake Michigan-based casinos in Gary, Indiana. The plan was to relocate the casinos to downtown Gary and Vigo County in western Indiana. The Legislature approved the move in 2019 through the passage of a bill.
As a member of the House Committee on Public Policy, Eberhart was responsible for overseeing the casino and gambling industry in Indiana. However, he faced accusations from prosecutors of leveraging his position to advocate for the relocation of a company and secure advantageous terms, such as tax incentives. In exchange for his efforts, Eberhart allegedly sought a future job with a salary of at least $350,000 per year.
Over the past few years, the casino company has faced numerous federal investigations, causing it to be in a constant state of turmoil.
John Keeler, a seasoned casino executive, was convicted in 2022 along with former Indiana state Senator Brent Waltz for unlawfully channeling gambling funds into Waltz’s failed congressional campaign in 2016.
After being indicted in 2020 alongside Waltz, Keeler, a former Republican legislator for 16 years in the 1980s and 1990s, received a two-month prison sentence and was fined $55,000. As a result of their indictments, the Indiana Gaming Commission compelled Spectacle officials to relinquish their ownership stakes in the Gary and Terre Haute casino projects.
In federal court, Waltz, a Republican from Greenwood, received a sentence of 10 months in prison after being found guilty of assisting in the funneling of approximately $40,000 in unlawful contributions to his campaign and providing misleading statements to the FBI.
