After the raid, which resulted in the arrest of the Osceola County sheriff and several others on charges of racketeering, prosecutors and the Florida Gaming Control Commission recovered around $1.1 million from the proprietor of an illegal casino in Kissimmee, according to court documents.
However, despite being named as a co-conspirator by prosecutors in public court, the owner, Krishna Deokaran, who was characterized by one of the people detained as the person with all the connections and at the top of the food chain, has not been charged with a crime. The reason is unclear.
The seizures are the consequence of two forfeiture proceedings that were brought in the months following the August 27 raid at The Eclipse, the Kissimmee casino where Sheriff Marcos Lopez was accused by prosecutors, according to court documents examined by the Orlando Sentinel.
Although Lopez is not named, one of those charges, which was filed in Osceola County on September 30, also provided a newly detailed look at the year-long undercover operation conducted by the Metropolitan Bureau of operation prior to the raid.
Nonetheless, the information does reveal the identity of Deokaran, who in a settlement forfeited $138,856 in cash that was found at The Eclipse. He also gave up almost $988,000 in Orange County, which was spread across four bank accounts that were allegedly connected to a Leesburg casino.
Although not mentioned in the Orange County case’s unsealed files, the MBI affidavit makes the first suggestion of a connection to the Players Club casino in Leesburg, which is spread across multiple units at a retail complex on U.S. Highway 27. Messages asking for comment were not answered by the attorney who defended Deokaran in both forfeiture proceedings.
Without providing any specifics, prosecutors had previously charged Lopez and his alleged co-conspirators with attempting to move their illicit gambling business from Kissimmee into Lake County starting in 2021.
Property records show that Proactive Genius, a Deokaran-affiliated limited liability company, owned Players Club. Proactive Genius is listed as a manager in business papers and is identified as an interested party in that forfeiture case, along with Proactive Custom Auto and Collision, LLC. The MBI document also identified Proactive Genius as a Deokaran-owned vehicle wash.
Since then, Players Club has been labeled as temporarily closed on the internet. However, a picture of the building has a logo that is similar to The Eclipse on its front door and windows, with the company name shown above and under a diamond image. It hasn’t been verified, though, that the FGCC—the organization in charge of upholding gaming regulations—targeted that company. A request for response from that agency’s representative was not answered.
Records show that authorities learned of The Eclipse from an anonymous tip they got in 2022, one year before Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier declared the inquiry had formally started. The company has now played a significant role in the racketeering accusations against Lopez and the five people who have been implicated in the plot thus far: Ying Zhang, Carol Cote, Sharon Fedrick, Sheldon Wetherholt, and Lopez’s divorced wife, Robin Severance-Lopez.
Lopez and Severance-Lopez are the only suspects still in the Lake County Jail on $1 million and $400,000 bonds, respectively, while Zhang is the only known suspect who has not yet been taken into custody.
According to the prosecution, Lopez and the others plotted to use the Kissimmee casino to benefit themselves. The 54-page MBI affidavit, which was first resurfaced by WESH, details four visits to The Eclipse starting in July 2023 by undercover agents who played the games there, took pictures of their winnings, and recorded their findings in advance of the raid, even though the 255-page affidavit outlining the details is still under seal.
Fedrick is mentioned as a manager who made sure the bills for The Eclipse, Players Club, and another casino close to The Villages were paid. It also includes interviews with employees regarding the company. According to the statement, Fedrick would also meet with Deokaran at Players Club or at his Windermere home to deliver the Eclipse money, while also informing investigators that business has been slow recently.
Wetherholt informed investigators that he first established SW Fusion LLC, the company that founded The Eclipse, because he thought Deokaran, who was occasionally referred to as Kris in the affidavit, intended to construct a legitimate hookah bar. According to the statement, he understood what Kris was doing was unlawful, so when it became apparent that it would instead be a casino, he no longer wanted his name on any of the companies.
Fedrick informed the MBI, however, that Deokaran assured her that there was no need to be concerned about law enforcement at Eclipse. Records previously examined by the Sentinel seem to verify that promise. They revealed that Osceola County officers attended to The Eclipse dozens of times between 2022 and the day of the search, including for an alleged employee attack on a customer that did not result in an arrest.
Prosecutors say Lopez, who was elected as the first Hispanic sheriff of Osceola County in 2020, used his position to protect The Eclipse from accountability. They claim that in return, he received at least $600,000 in campaign contributions and personal benefits, with Severance-Lopez being responsible for transferring the funds.
Following Lopez’s arrest, Statewide Prosecutor Pangiota Papakos told a judge that there are photographs showing the defendant’s direct involvement and his use of his influence to perhaps obstruct a criminal investigation into the casino.
While Severance-Lopez, who was taken into custody on Monday, has not entered a plea, the since-suspended sheriff has pleaded not guilty to the allegations. The couple had been apart since 2019, the year the alleged gambling plan started, and Severance-Lopez was pursuing a divorce at the time of their arrests.
