First, a quick re-cap…
Back at the end of August 2009, we ran a news article on the situation with BetOnSports.com founder Gary Kaplan. Kaplan was extradited from Dominica back in March 2007 on charges of violating the RICO Statute and violating the Wire Wager Act of 1961, during the course of running his company, BetOnSports.com, which ceased trading in 2006, owing its customers over $16 million.
Since March 2007 Kaplan has been in prison and back in August 2009 agreed to plead guilty to charges of federal racketeering and other charges and forfeit $43.6 million. The sentencing of Kaplan was to be done on 27 October and would be between 41 and 51 months, minus the time already served.
The Justice Department announced the sentence on Tuesday of last week and it seems that Kaplan was given the maximum sentence of 51 months. Obviously, he’s already served much of this sentence and just under 2 years of it remains to be served. You have to give it to Kaplan’s attorneys for arguing for leniency and “home confinement” (!), but Acting US Attorney Michael Reap prosecuting the case, put forward an incontestable case to District Judge Carol Jackson. Judge Jackson said that Kaplan’s previous felonies of bookmaking and forgery and a “misdemeanour” demonstrated that he “continued to disrespect” the law. Despite the knowledge that his company’s actions of soliciting U.S. citizens to place sports wagers by phone and over the Internet directly from their accounts were illegal, he continued to break the law. She went on to say that;
“Mr. Kaplan made an educated decision, a gamble if you will. Now, here’s the payoff.”
In addition to Kaplan, 3 other top tier executives of BetOnSports.com have pleaded guilty to charges and will soon be sentenced. A fourth will be sentenced later.
In a somewhat dramatic statement, the Acting U.S. attorney in St. Louis, Michael Reap, said;
“Kaplan’s business model itself was built on a wager that the U.S. could not and would not enforce its anti-sports book laws to reach Kaplan. Today, Kaplan lost that wager.”
In addition to serving 51 months in jail, Kaplan was also ordered to; take substance and mental health counselling, gain his high school diploma and he was also told that he would never again be allowed to run his own company again without prior permission from the probation office.
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This entry was written by Nena on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 4:51 am and is filed under News.
