Former i2corp.com Exec Charged with Three Felony Counts

A former executive at i2corp.com is facing charges that he and his son-in-law stole more than $25,000 from The Woodlands Racetrack in Kansas City, Kan.

August J. Masciotra was general manager of The Woodlands for eight months of 1999 before leaving the track to work for i2corp.com. After working there for a few months during 2000, he returned to The Woodlands and worked there from May of 2000 to January of 2002.

Masciotra, 52, and his son-in-law, Eugene Brundige, 36, are being charged in Wyandotte County, Kansas, with three felony counts each. They could have their Kansas gaming licenses revoked and be fined $85,000 by the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission, reports The Kansas City Star.

Masciotra was appointed president of the Home Gambling Network, an i2corp.com subsidiary, the Jefferson City News Tribune reported on Feb. 29, 2000. The Home Gambling Network is the i2corp.com entity in charge of marketing and licensing the i2corp.system for live remote wagering on the Internet.

i2corp.com President Chris Almida told IGN today that Masciotra was hired in March of 2000 and was gone from the company by either April or May.

"I know that he went back to The Woodlands Racetrack, but I don't keep in contact with him," Almida said.

Almida said Masciotra left i2corp.com because "we just couldn't come to terms on different things."

Almida said he has no comment on Masciotra's current legal situation.

According to The Kansas City Star, Masciotra will surrender to authorities today and is planning on pleading not guilty.

The newspaper also reports that Kansas gaming regulators last year found that more than $180,376 of the track's money had been taken fraudulently during a two-year period. The acts that Masciotra and his son-in-law are charged will allegedly relate to three separate thefts that occurred in January and February of 2001.

Authorities allege that Masciotra, among other things, used Woodlands employees to perform lawn maintenance at his house at a cost to the track of $14,000; reimbursed himself $25,000 in track money for credit card bills not related to track business; gave one of his daughters Woodlands health insurance although she was not eligible for it; and hosted a wedding reception at the Woodlands in which he used more than $7,100 worth of the track's food, alcohol and other resources.

The Wyandotte County district attorney's office did not return IGN's phone call requesting comment. Representatives of the company that controls The Woodlands were traveling and could not respond immediately to IGN's phone call.