Raymondville businesswoman sentenced to 18 months in prison

McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A businesswoman who sold more than $20 million in silver to a Willacy County game room was sentenced to 18 months in prison Tuesday for submitting fraudulent paperwork to the IRS.

Dominga “Penny” Ledesma, 53, of Raymondville owned Brittany’s Boutique, which provided services to local game rooms.

Her boutique sold more than $20 million worth of silver pellets to El Toro, a game room in Lyford, from May 2017 to October 2018.

Ledesma knew who owned El Toro, according to prosecutors, but she listed other people on the IRS paperwork.

“I take full responsibility for any mistakes I made,” Ledesma said on Tuesday afternoon, when she appeared in court for sentencing, but insisted that she never intended to break the law.

Ledesma testified about Brittany’s Boutique during her trial in February 2023.

When the business opened, she focused on buying gold and silver.

“It slowly became a boutique,” Ledesma said, which sold t-shirts, purses and other knickknacks.

Silver, however, became a big part of her business again when small towns in Willacy County started regulating game rooms.

The regulations created a Las Vegas-style vibe in Lyford, a tiny town of less than 2,500 people on U.S. 77.

Rene Gamez Jr., 43, of Houston joined the gold rush.

The son of a machinist, Gamez never graduated from high school.

“I was on my own at 15,” Gamez said in February 2023, when he testified during the trial. “And had to work to eat, you know.”

A lack of education never stopped Gamez from making money.

In 2007 or 2008, he opened a game room in Houston. Robbers hit the business just six months later.

“So I came to the Valley,” Gamez said.

Gamez opened a game room in Willacy County during 2012.

“They closed it down,” Gamez said, because he paid winners in cash.

A few years later, Gamez tried again.

Gambling is tightly regulated in Texas, but state law contains an exception for games that reward players with “noncash merchandise prizes, toys, or novelties, or a representation of value redeemable for those items, that have a wholesale value available from a single play of the game or device of not more than 10 times the amount charged to play the game or device once or $5, whichever is less.”

The exception, which is part of the Texas Penal Code, created a legal gray area for game rooms in Willacy County.

Customers would visit game rooms and play slot machines, just as they would in Las Vegas. To cash out, though, customers had to follow a multi-step process.

Winners received small bags of silver pellets. They would sell the silver to nearby businesses, which called themselves boutiques or silver exchanges.

Whenever a game room needed more silver, it would simply buy the pellets back from the nearby boutique for a small fee.

Gamez heard that Brittany’s Boutique handled silver for game rooms. He stopped by her store.

Ledesma offered to buy silver from Gamez’s new game room, El Toro, for 25 cents per bag.

“They just weren’t my cup of tea,” Gamez said, but Brittany’s Boutique opened a new location near El Toro.

Gamez reluctantly agreed to work with Ledesma — and El Toro made them both millions.

The game room generated $20 million to $30 million, Gamez estimated. Ledesma received a percentage for handling the silver.

“Brittany’s Boutique was paid, on slow years, anywhere from $600,000. To busy years, a little bit over $1 million,” Gamez estimated.

While he owned the business, Gamez didn’t want his name on anything.

That created a problem for Ledesma, who had to report cash transactions of more than $10,000. The paperwork required Brittany’s Boutique to identify everyone who participated in each cash transaction.

After meeting with Gamez, she began listing his second cousin — Louis Fernando Ramirez — and El Toro employees on the paperwork.

Ramirez died in February 2017, but Ledesma kept listing him on the paperwork anyway.

Ledesma also listed a former El Toro employee, Gabriela, on the paperwork after she stopped working for the game room.

Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Criminal Investigation division of the IRS reviewed the paperwork filed by Brittany’s Boutique.

Agents arrested Ledesma in 2019. She pleaded not guilty and requested a trial.

Homeland Security Investigations caught up with Gamez in 2022, when he took a two-month trip to Hawaii.

Gamez was still running game rooms in South Texas, according to the criminal complaint against him, and was “receiving proceeds from these illegal operations via currency applications such as Zelle and CashApp.”

Faced with a maximum of 10 years in federal prison, Gamez pleaded guilty and testified against Ledesma in February 2023.

Ledesma knew he owned El Toro, Gamez said, and contacted him when she had problems.

When she took the witness stand, Ledesma told a different story.

“I did everything possible,” Ledesma said. “I got IDs. I got socials. I tracked everything. I noted every amount of money that came in. We had receipts for everything. We had employees that were checking everything. We did everything possible to do everything correctly.”

Ledesma said that, as far as she knew, Ramirez owned El Toro.

“I was never told he died,” Ledesma said.

Paperwork that listed Gabriela was just a mistake, said Ledesma, who blamed El Toro for the mix-up.

Her excuses didn’t survive cross-examination.

“You understand that these forms are filed under penalty of perjury?” asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Flores.

Ledesma agreed.

“You understand that obligates you to verify?” Flores said.

Ledesma agreed.

“But, in fact, you didn’t,” Flores said. “Because you were making a lot of money.”

Her attorney objected. After a break, Ledesma returned to the courtroom and pleaded guilty.

As part of her plea, Ledesma admitted that she knowingly and “for the purpose of evading the reporting requirements” filed paperwork that contained incorrect information. U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez scheduled her for sentencing in April 2023.

April became July. July became September. September became December.

All of 2024 passed.

Alvarez took senior status, a type of semi-retirement for judges, and transferred the case to U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton. Flores and Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodore Parran III, who tried the case together, left the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas. And Ledesma had a series of health problems.

In April 2025, more than two years after she pleaded guilty, Ledesma returned to court.

Her attorneys suggested another delay, so Ledesma could be sentenced alongside Gamez. She became hysterical.

“Please. My health is not good anymore, OK,” Ledesma sobbed. “I’ve had so much anxiety. And I just want it over with.”

As the courtroom marshals prepared to restrain her, Tipton urged Ledesma to relax.

“I don’t care what you say,” Ledesma shot back. “Just sentence me. And let’s get it over with.”

After meeting with her attorneys, Ledesma grudgingly agreed to another delay.

Ledesma returned to court Tuesday afternoon wearing a white blouse that featured pictures of elephants.

Her lawyer, Noe D. Garza Jr. of Brownsville, repeated his trial arguments.

“You’re getting pretty close to the edge here of saying your client didn’t do it,” said Tipton, the federal judge.

Guidelines published by the U.S. Sentencing Commission suggested 33 to 41 months in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Fry recommended 24 months, noting that Ledesma had been on bond for more than two years after pleading guilty. Garza requested time served — the five days Ledesma spent in jail after her arrest.

Asked if she wanted to speak, Ledesma read from a lengthy letter.

“Honest mistakes can happen,” Ledesma said, adding that she was just a small business owner who had trouble filling out IRS paperwork.

Ledesma insisted, again, that she believed Ramirez owned El Toro and didn’t know he was dead when she filed the IRS paperwork.

At least 14 game rooms are still operating in Willacy County, Ledesma said, but they aren’t reporting cash transactions.

“It feels incredibly unfair to punish for attempting to comply with the law,” Ledesma said, while other people don’t even try.

The investigation left her with anxiety, chronic pain and other health problems, Ledesma said, adding that she becomes nervous whenever law enforcement is nearby.

Tipton settled on 18 months in prison followed by two years on supervised release. Ledesma must self-surrender by noon on Aug. 15.