A former mayor of the US city of San Diego spent the last decade gambling away more than US$1 billion, squandering her savings, auctioning her belongings, selling off real estate, borrowing from friends and finally taking more than $2 million from a charity established by her late husband, a fast-food tycoon.
The New York Times reports that Maureen O’Connor, 66, was in federal court in San Diego this week to respond to charges that she defrauded the charity.
Her lawyers said her actual net losses were around $13 million, but federal prosecutors said it was impossible to know exactly how much she had lost in casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and her home state of California. At one point, with her fortune gone and her health shattered, she took out second and third mortgages on her home in the pricey San Diego suburb of La Jolla to pay for her habit. Her lawyers said she had between $40 million and $50 million before her gambling problems began.
Under an agreement with federal prosecutors, the former school teacher, who was San Diego’s chief executive from 1986 to 1992, will receive treatment and has two years to repay the money to the charity and taxes owed to the government.
The US Attorney’s Office in San Diego said the case was first brought to prosecutors’ attention by the US Internal Revenue Service, which receives reports of winnings from casinos.
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