A federal magistrate judge declined to release one of the ringleaders of what authorities allege is a multi-state gambling and extortion ring run partly out of his family’s two Northwest Indiana restaurants.
James “Jimmy the Greek” Gerodemos, 62, was one of several defendants in the case who appeared for detention hearings Monday at the U.S. District Courthouse in Hammond.
In a motion for detention filed Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson wrote how Gerodemos had paid former Lake County Sheriff John Buncich $10,000 per month to overlook illegal video poker machines at the Paragon restaurant in Hobart in the 1990s. Buncich was later convicted of public corruption charges and sentenced to 12.5 years in prison. He was released to a Chicago halfway house last summer and on at least one occasion since then has been observed in the company of Gerodemos, the filing states.
Benson also alluded to ways defendants with dual citizenship could go to Greece through a third country to avoid extradition. Federal prosecutors obtained a picture Gerodemos took earlier this spring with Frank Kollintzas in Greece. Kollintzas fled to Greece days before his sentencing in 2005 to avoid serving time in federal prison in the Sidewalk Six scandal.
“If not detained, there is little doubt that Fugitive Kollintzas would be (his) permanent dinner partner in Greece,” Benson wrote.
Gerodemos’ attorney, Patrick Young, didn’t contest the motion, so Magistrate Andrew Rodovich said that James Gerodemos will remain in custody.
Young declined to comment after the hearing.
The 87-page indictment detailing the alleged gambling and extortion activity between January 2021 and April 2026 names James “Jimmy the Greek” Gerodemos, of Schererville, and Dean “Dean Gem” Gialamas, of Naperville, as leaders of Gerodemos Gambling Organization.
Gialamas was arrested April 30 in Puerto Rico. He made a court appearance that day where a federal judge released him on a $50,000 secured bond, ordering him to give up his passport and report to a probation office in Florida the next day.
He was ordered to report to the U.S. District Court in Hammond by May 12. His public defender Jackson Whetsel did not immediately respond for a request for comment.
In Hammond, bond was also denied for Basam “Donny Brasco” Ibrahim, who allegedly threatened at least two people who owed gambling debts the organization. Ibrahim, of Portage, and James Gerodemos are the only defendants to be charged in all of the extortion counts involving Victim #1 and Victim #2. Basam Ibrahim’s attorney Damon Cheronis declined to comment.
Feds want tips in ‘Greek’-led gambling ring in northwest Indiana
Sanad “Sanad Taka” Ibrahim, of St. John, was released on a $50,000 bond on the condition that he and his wife surrender their passports.
Vladimir Ganz was granted release on a $100,000 unsecured bond. His lawyer, Russell Brown, did not respond to a request for comment.
Filippo “Gigi” Rovito, of Burr Ridge, was granted release on a $1 million bond.
An indictment unsealed Wednesday showed federal prosecutors charged 22 people earlier this month in the scheme — operating out of Gino’s Steakhouse in Merrillville and Paragon in Hobart.
The indictment details the lengths the gambling organization went to threaten multiple victims and their relatives with violence if their accrued gambling debts weren’t paid up.
Gerodemos’ organization unsuccessfully tried to reclaim money from Victim 1 who owed $45,000. When that didn’t work, they tried other means. In one incident, Mustafa, an ex-Gino’s cook, traveled to Texas in June 2025 and left a Papa John’s pizza box with roses and a note threatening a man called Victim 1’s college-age daughter.
“Do the right thing, or I’m heading to Valparaiso University…n’ get ahold of the Greek,” it read.
By October 2025, James Gerodemos left a message for Victim 1 asking him to give him a call or he was going to go to Valparaiso and “(expletive) your daughter.”
The charges also detail attempts by members of the Gerodemos Gambling Organization, from August 2023 to June 2025, to track down victim 2, reportedly living in Florida, to collect $30,000. The efforts included repeated texts, phone calls and alleged threats, including trying to find victim 2 at a Florida casino.
Victim 3 owed just under $7,500, while victim 4 owed nearly $25,000, Benson wrote in the Monday filing.
“I heard (your) mother died, good!” Gerodemos texted victim 4 on July 10, 2024, “I’m so glad (your) mother died. I wanted to dig her up and (expletive) her.”
The man later claimed Gerodemos dialed a wrong number.
Benson wrote that Gerodemos was on bond for a “swatting call” in Hobart. After a tip from co-defendant Michael Campbell, he “falsely” called 911 in May 2024 to accuse a “former tenant” of “pointing a gun at his girlfriend.” The supposed tenant had previously complained of harrassment by Gerodemos in Chesterton over an outstanding gambling debt.
Records show he got a pretrial diversion agreement in Hobart City Court and the case is in the process of being expunged.
In the motion for detention, it details that prosecutors obtained evidence for the case from dozens of hours of secret recordings made by an undercover officer, data from the targets’ phones recovered via search warrants, and bank grand jury subpoena records revealing the financial dealings between co-conspirators, extortion victims, and bettors.
In particular, a warrant for James Gerodemos’ iCloud account contained messages and images that were an “evidentiary bonanza (that) forms the factual basis for the allegations in the Indictment.”
