BetonSports plc set up shop back in 1995 setting up bases in Aruba, Antigua adn eventually Costa Rica, with the aim of soliciting U.S. citizens into making sports wagers over the internet or telephone and thus flouting the US Wire Act of 1961. By 2006 it was one of the world’s biggest online gambling companies with a turnover of more than $1.8 billion annually.
Prosecutor, Acting US Attorney Michael W. Reap, accused BetonSports of falseley advertising itself to be a legal entreprise to its US customers, where they could deposit and withdraw money at their own discression. Prosecutors claimed, however, that deposits were used to expand the company and when the company was forced to shut down in 2006, its customers lost over $16 million. Kaplan, four other main players within the company and the company itself, was indited in 2006 by a federal grand jury.
In March 2007, Gary Kaplan was extradited from Dominica to the USA on charges of conspiracy to violate the RICO statute, conspiring to violate the Wire Wager Act and violating the Wire Wager Act. He has been in prison ever since and has just recently agreed to plead guilty to federal racketeering conspiracy and other charges. In an accord arranged with the federal authorities, he has agreed to forfeit $43.6 million from his Swiss bank accounts. The money was transferred a week before he pleaded guilty and was sourced from the funds totalling around $100 million which Kaplan received in 2004, as a result of BetonSports being floated on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market. Kaplan will also be sentenced to between 41 and 51 months in prison on 27 October (minus the time already served).
Tags: BetonSports, Gary Kaplan, UIGEA
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 1:56 am and is filed under News.
