Internal emails reveal motivation, scope of DCI Sports Gambling Investigation
DES MOINES, Iowa — Newly obtained emails between investigators within the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigations are shedding more light into why and how agents gathered evidence against student athletes at Iowa and Iowa State Universities in the online sports betting case.
Agents used geo-fence technology already employed by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission to track all cell phone activity on both campuses. The evidence led to criminal charges against 26 students; most pled guilty to underage gambling as part of plea deals. In March, the state dropped all charges against the five remaining defendants who pleaded not guilty; all 26 individuals are now suing the state.
According to internal emails provided by the Sandy Law Firm, Van Plumb and Matthew Boles who are representing the plaintiffs, DCI agents believed state code permitted them to use the software program Kibana, which is used by the Racing and Gaming Commission to track online sports betting, to cast a broad net to identify who was placing wagers.
An email exchange on September 15, 2022 from Story County prosecutor Tyler Grimm to DCI special agent Chris Swigart details Grimm explaining the need to obtain a warrant to obtain certain information they were after. No warrant was issued and the geo-fences were initiated.
On February 2, 2023, after the evidence was collected, special agent Christopher Adkins sent a lengthy email to lead agent on the case Brian Sanger and his superior, special agent Troy Nelson saying in part:
‘I think this is one of things that would bring attention to our unit, not only in the public’s eyes, but also as far as the commissioner and even possibly the legislatures.’
‘From what I gathered from what Brian said, there is a crime here.’
‘I believe this is something we should move on. It might ruffle some feathers but so be it. This is what our unit is for. To hold people and the sports books accountable.’
Special agent Nelson responded a few hours later saying:
‘I like everything you have to say here Chris and I am also on board with your perspective.
But communications also show agents knew their methods would be questioned.
On March 2, 2023 special agent Swigart, who was assigned to investigate the case contacted special agent Nelson saying in part:
‘It’s going to be a controversial issue for us to be able to articulate what leads an investigator to search specific locations for accounts based on the absence of a complaint or lead. Fourth amendment issues are going to be challenged when we are arbitrarily picking locations we want to randomly locate account information from.’
Agent Nelson responded three days later saying:
‘Hmmm, very interesting. Yeah, I’ll have to think through that.
On March 24, 2023 DCI assistant director David Jobes emailed agent Nelson and informed him:
‘Some agents are expressing concern related to the initial use of the geo location data and the potential need to identify the source of the data in subsequent court proceedings’
Emails were provided to WHO 13 by the attorneys representing the 26 plaintiffs from the Sandy Law Firm, attorney Van Plumb and attorney Matthew Boles.
GeoComply has publicly stated the way DCI agents used their software, Kibana, in this case was inappropriate.
