'Dead' Local Man Turned Vegas Bookie To Admit To Fraud

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (CBS) -- A man who assumed another identity and was declared dead is expected to appear Monday in a Las Vegas courtroom, where he is expected to plead guilty to fraud charges.

As WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports, an attorney for Arthur Gerald Jones, 73, says his client will plead guilty to felony identity fraud and avoid trial on more serious charges.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports

Jones' attorney says his client deserves probation, and that he will make restitution to the Social Security Administration and to an Arizona man whose name Jones used during 10 years working at a Las Vegas casino sports book.

Jones, who more recently has used the name Joseph Richard Sandelli, was arrested in Las Vegas last month, 32 years after vanishing from his Highland Park home.

Jones was arrested July 19, after he was identified as the former Chicago financier who'd had a seat on the Board of Trade, who disappeared from in 1979 with gambling debts and a troubled marriage.

He had been living in Highland Park with his wife and three children.

Jones' disappearance was immediately labeled suspicious, and police believed he might have run into trouble with gambling debts and possible mob affiliations, the Chicago Tribune reported last month.

Jones was declared legally dead in 1986, and his family collected his Social Security benefits.

But Nevada officials said he really took another person's valid Social Security number and began using the Sandelli name, first in Florida, and in Las Vegas since the late 1980s.

For the past ten years, Jones has been working in Las Vegas in a sports betting operation.

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