Online Casino Exec Sitting Out in Jail
27 Jul 2006
The detained British online casino executive, David Carruthers appeared in a brief 5 minute bail hearing in a Texas court last week. According to the court's decision, he is to remain in jail and be transferred to a court in St. Louis, Missouri. The British citizen and CEO of Bet on Sports online casino company is facing federal racketeering and conspiracy charges along with eleven other co-conspirators. The U.S. government says that the online casino fraudulently took bets from American residents via telephone and the internet, and subsequently failed to pay excise taxes.
Carruthers was arrested last week as he was in transit from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, while waiting to board a flight to Costa Rica, where the online casino has a major operation base. The online casino executive has hired a high profile lawyer who is trying to postpone the bail hearing, which will be held instead in a federal district court in St Louis. The lawyer did not give any reason why he preferred the trial to take place in the St Louis district.
The lawyer said that he remained optimistic that a deal could be reached and that his client would be released shortly. He stated that the law enforcement agencies' real target should be the founder of the online casino company, Gary Stephen Kaplan, who has remained at large despite the indictment and is expected to be living in the Costa Rica area.
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