BetOnSports Founder
Pleads Guilty in U.S. Court
 August
21 -
Gary Kaplan,
the founder of the defunct British
online gambling firm BetOnSports
pleaded guilty in U.S. court last Friday and
agreed to forfeit more than $43 million in criminal proceeds,
according to the U.S. Justice Department.
It said Gary Kaplan, 50, who is
considered a pioneer in the field of online sports betting,
pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to
violate U.S. laws
including federal racketeering.
Kaplan, who
transferred $43,650,000 last week from a Swiss bank account to
U.S. authorities
as the forfeit he agreed to, entered his plea in U.S. District
Court in St. Louis.
If the judge accepts the terms of the plea deal,
Kaplan could be sentenced to a prison term of between 41 to 51
months His
sentencing has been set for October 27. He has been in custody
without a bond set since his arrest in March of 2007.
BetOnSports ceased operations in 2006,
and there is speculation that in total customers lost between
$7 million and $20 million.
Kaplan admitted in court that beginning in the mid to late
1990s,
he set up business entities offshore in Aruba, Antigua and
eventually Costa Rica
to provide betting services to U.S. residents through internet
websites and toll-free telephone numbers.
Some of his web servers were located in Miami and U.S. customers
placed wagers over U.S. telephone lines.
In mid-2004,
Kaplan made a successful public offering of BetOnSports shares
on London Stock Exchange's AIM market which reportedly
netted him over $100 million.
John Gillies, the FBI's special agent in charge in St. Louis,
said, 'Gary
Kaplan's guilty plea should have a lasting effect
because he was not only the founder of BetOnSports,
he was
also
one of the pioneers of
illegal
online gambling.'
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