More than $1.7 million of Robert Roth’s gambling empire has been forfeited to the Greene County Agencies for Combined Enforcement Task Force, a key player in the arrest and conviction of Roth.

“This case was really about taking away the assets this man generated over 30 years,” assistant U.S. Attorney Pam Stanek said Thursday.

Stanek spoke at a brief gathering at Dayton’s federal building that included representatives of federal agencies and members of the task force, known as ACE, to celebrate the final liquidation of Roth’s forfeited assets and the end of a 10-year effort.

During the gathering, Carter M. Stewart, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Darryl Williams, special agent in charge of the IRS’s Cincinnati field office, gave commemorative coins to local and federal agents and staff who participated in the investigation.

Roth pleaded guilty in October 2006 to conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business and conspiracy to launder money, more than three years after law enforcement agents began executing search warrants on his properties. Sentenced to 20 months, he has since been released from prison.

In total, the U.S. marshals and the IRS were able collect more $5 million from the sale of Roth’s assets. After paying off liens and other costs, federal agents sent about $2.5 million to law enforcement groups in Greene County. About $800,000 was given to a federal asset forfeiture fund, Stanek said.

A total of 93 assets were forfeited by Roth, including properties in Beavercreek at 3973 Rockfield Drive and 3776 Indian Ripple Road, 620 McBee Road in Sugarcreek Twp. and 685 acres in southeast Ohio, according to Stanek’s presentation for more than 30 law enforcement officers that included police chiefs from Fairborn, Beavercreek, Yellow Springs and Xenia, as well as Greene County Prosecutor Steve Haller and Sheriff Gene Fischer.

The final piece of Roth’s assets, 321 acres in Wyoming that he had been developing, was recently sold for $1.6 million, Stanek said, and $573,000 of that would be turned over to local agencies.

Bruce May, director of ACE, said much of the money had been spent on a record-keeping system for several area police departments.

“We couldn’t do it without the feds,” May said. “We’re a small county.”

At the time of his guilty plea, Roth admitted that at least $26 million flowed from a gambling machine business he operated for three decades from some of the local properties he owned. He funneled that money into other ventures.

Roth’s son, Phillip, and ex-wife, Beverly, eventually pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to launder money stemming from a gambling operation. Both were given probation.

Phillip Roth admitted his primary role was to acquire and maintain machines that Robert Roth put in private social clubs and establishments throughout Dayton and surrounding areas, as well as collect and deposit money from those machines into the bank accounts of businesses Robert Roth established to support the operation.

Beverly Roth’s primary role was to manage the daily operations of a casino Robert Roth ran out of the Rockfield Drive residence.