Boss of veteran offshore sportsbook Tradewinds ordered to forfeit $25 million after guilty plea

Michael Lawrence “Scott” Brannon, who admitted to helping run the Costa Rica-based offshore sportsbook Tradewinds, avoided prison and was sentenced to 12 months of probation, including six months of home confinement. For high-risk operators and PSPs, the point is not the sentence length; it’s the scale of the forfeiture, the long operating history, and the fact that the business was treated as an illegal gambling operation in US federal court.

1. According to recently surfaced federal court records, Brannon pleaded guilty in February in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to operating an illegal gambling business. Judge Amos L. Mazzant III sentenced him to 12 months of probation, with the first six months to be served in home confinement in the United States.
2. Brannon admitted that he conducted, directed and financed Tradewinds between August 2013 and April 23, 2021, working with at least five other individuals. He also acknowledged receiving at least $25 million in proceeds from the operation and agreed to forfeit that amount to the government, along with Tradewinds’ website, trdwd.cc.
3. A subsequent court judgment ordered Brannon to forfeit the full $25 million. He was required to pay $7 million shortly after sentencing, with the remaining $18 million scheduled in three $6 million installments after he completes his home confinement.
4. Tradewinds had operated from Costa Rica since at least the late 1990s and was among the earlier offshore sportsbooks catering to customers outside the country. In other words, this was not a fly-by-night brand; it was a long-running offshore book that still ended up in a federal forfeiture case.
5. Brannon is the second person to face federal prosecution over the Tradewinds operation. Clarence “Gary” Austin pleaded guilty in 2023 after admitting that he had also conducted, directed and financed the sportsbook during the same period. Austin was later sentenced to five years of probation, including six months of home detention, and forfeited assets including $1.295 million in cash, 61 one-kilogram gold bars, cryptocurrency, funds held in financial accounts and investment products, luxury vehicles and three Florida properties.

Brannon’s probation began on April 6, 2026, when authorities banned him from owning, managing, operating, consulting for, or otherwise participating in any form of gambling business. For PSPs, acquirers and banking partners, that kind of order is the practical reminder here: old offshore books may look established, but federal exposure can still reach the people behind them years later.