CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Welch pharmacist who admitted skimming hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from his business to feed his gambling habit will spend a year on home confinement.

In April, Saad Kamil Deeb, 64, pleaded guilty to conducting illegal bank transactions in order to hide the amount of money he was moving around from the government.

U.S. District Judge David A. Faber sentenced Deeb to five years of probation on Monday, with the first year to be spent on home confinement. He also fined Deeb $20,000.

Deeb had been facing between 33 and 41 months in prison, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Smith asked the judge to reduce Deeb's sentence because he has cooperated with authorities in the prosecution of others.

According to court documents, Deeb admitted betting up to $60,000 a game on college and professional sports contests. He also passed on bets on behalf of others in the Welch area.

In order to hide the large transactions from the IRS, Deeb used friends and pharmacy employees to help him move money in amounts around or just under $10,000, according to an IRS affidavit.

Deeb kept the amounts low to avoid triggering a Currency Transaction Report, the affidavit states. Financial institutions have to file such a report with the IRS for any transaction over $10,000.

Deeb has forfeited more than $870,000 in assets to the government, according to defense attorney Timothy DiPiero's sentencing memorandum. When taxes and penalties are included, Deeb's payments exceed $1 million, the memo states.

"While on occasions he certainly won large sums from gambling, on the whole given the nature of the beast and the odds stacked against him, he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars from gambling," DiPiero wrote. "The money that he [illegally transferred] was ultimately from his business or his family and not from profits from illegal drug sales, for instance."

In April, Saad Kamil Deeb, 64, pleaded guilty to conducting illegal bank transactions in order to hide the amount of money he was moving around from the government.

U.S. District Judge David A. Faber sentenced Deeb to five years of probation on Monday, with the first year to be spent on home confinement. He also fined Deeb $20,000.

Deeb had been facing between 33 and 41 months in prison, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Smith asked the judge to reduce Deeb's sentence because he has cooperated with authorities in the prosecution of others.

According to court documents, Deeb admitted betting up to $60,000 a game on college and professional sports contests. He also passed on bets on behalf of others in the Welch area.

In order to hide the large transactions from the IRS, Deeb used friends and pharmacy employees to help him move money in amounts around or just under $10,000, according to an IRS affidavit.

Deeb kept the amounts low to avoid triggering a Currency Transaction Report, the affidavit states. Financial institutions have to file such a report with the IRS for any transaction over $10,000.

Deeb has forfeited more than $870,000 in assets to the government, according to defense attorney Timothy DiPiero's sentencing memorandum. When taxes and penalties are included, Deeb's payments exceed $1 million, the memo states.

"While on occasions he certainly won large sums from gambling, on the whole given the nature of the beast and the odds stacked against him, he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars from gambling," DiPiero wrote. "The money that he [illegally transferred] was ultimately from his business or his family and not from profits from illegal drug sales, for instance."

In the wake of his prosecution, Deeb has been forced to sell Citizen's Pharmacy in Welch and is no longer a practicing pharmacist, the memo states.

Two other people have entered guilty pleas for their roles in the gambling ring.

In June, state liquor inspector Jimmy Kamel Hazemey admitted that he failed to report $64,000 of income from sports betting in 2004. Hazemey, a Welch resident and a longtime friend of Deeb, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 20.

On Aug. 1, Derrick Jay Drumheller, the former owner of Drummy's Bar and Grill in St. Albans, admitted that he served as a go-between for Deeb and bookies in Dunbar.

Drumheller also pleaded guilty to tax evasion for under-reporting the proceeds from the five video lottery machines in the bar.

Drumheller said he did not make any money for placing Deeb's bets with an unspecified bookie in Dunbar. Sometimes Deeb, who was a friend, would send him a case of moonshine or buy an expensive dinner, he said.

He faces up to 10 years in prison when sentenced on Nov. 5.

Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com">acleven...@wvgazette.com or 348-1723.