Undercover IRS agents had several conversations with a McDowell County
pharmacist about the way a gambling operation was run, according to a
federal search warrant affidavit. The pharmacist, Saad Kamil Deeb, is under
federal indictment on money laundering and gambling charges. Deeb, who owns
and operates Citizen’s Pharmacy in Welch, was indicted last month by a
federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to evade reporting about $1.7
million in income he received from allegedly operating a gambling parlor,
his own gambling profits and from skimming $250,000 or more a year from the
business for four or five years. Deeb’s accountant, Bluefield resident
Charles “Bud” Donchatz, has been cooperating with federal investigators for
more than a year and introduced the undercover agents to the pharmacist.
Agents recorded a number of the meetings, including one at Donchatz’ office
in February where Deeb admitted he had been making deposits and withdrawals
from a McDowell County bank in amounts just below the $10,000
federally-required reporting mark, the affidavit states. He also
acknowledged doing Internet gambling, most of it in Curacao, Netherlands
Antilles, according to the affidavit. And, the affidavit states, Deeb said
he did not want to pay taxes on his profits. “I’m taking about a quarter of
a million a year,” Deeb is quoted as telling the agent about skimming the
pharmacy profits. “I don’t like to report all this sh– and pay taxes on
it.” But he also expressed reservations about his alleged illegal activities
in February and seemed to have the feeling IRS agents were closing in on his
activities. “I’m expecting any day they’re going to come,” the undercover
agent reported Deeb told him. Investigators also went through the income tax
returns of Deeb’s former girlfriend, Sherrie Hickson, and his friend, state
liquor inspector Jimmy Kemal Hazemey, the affidavit revealed. Both allegedly
did banking and moved money around for Deeb, though neither has been
charged. Federal agents also noted the pharmacy has 10 separate telephone
lines and Deeb’s residence has five. From December until June, more than
51,000 calls were made to or from those phone lines.

The agent who wrote the affidavit, IRS Special Agent Stephen Rowley, stated
that “is consistent with large-scale sports gambling.”

But Deeb didn’t know what to do with all the cash. In one recorded meeting
with Donchatz he allegedly told the accountant, “This between me and you.
You know really kills me … I mean, uh, this store’s making so much money
an’ I can’t, uh, know which way to f——g pocket all I can, you know what
I’m saying?”

He then asks the best way to do that.

Rowley also wrote that Deeb agreed to place bets for the IRS undercover
agent’s supposed clients, saying he kept six cell phones for placing bets.

Deeb had purchased the former Moose Lodge in Welch, and an informant told
IRS agents he paid a Charleston firm to install an in-floor safe in the
structure, the affidavit states. He told the undercover agent he planned to
open a bar on the first floor of the building and a methadone clinic on the
second, according to the affidavit.