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BetonSports executive is regarded as a "flight risk" say American officials
A growing number of industry people are concerned at the harsh manner in which U.S. officials have treated a respectable British businessman following his arrest last weekend at Dallas airport whilst transitting the U.S.A.
David Carruthers, the CEO of the BetOnSports group and an outspoken critic of American political attempts to ban online gambling, was arrested and held incommunicado on a sealed indictment naming 11 persons for a range of 22 alleged offences under American law. He was held overnight in the local county jail, appeared briefly the next day in handcuffs in a federal district court and was committed to custody without bail for several days pending a further hearing.
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The Guardian reports that the U.S. Department of Justice has opposed bail for the businessman, but his defence lawyer intends to cite the so-called NatWest Three as a precedent for demanding that Carruthers is allowed out of prison.
Carruthers is represented by a Texas lawyer, Tim Evans, who said on Wednesday that the 49-year-old British gaming boss is "upset and concerned" to find himself languishing in a prison cell accused of illegal gambling and racketeering.
The American authorities have informed Evans that they consider Carruthers to be a "flight risk" as a foreign national, and that they want him to remain in custody until his trial, which is likely to be many months away.
Anand Doobay, a partner in the extradition team at Peters & Peters, says: "Since David Carruthers is already in custody his chances of being allowed to leave the US are extremely slim. Once people are arrested in the US the prosecutors generally insist they remain there until trial."
However, a Texas judge's rare decision last week to permit bail in the case of three other British businessmen accused of an Enron-related fraud is likely to be raised in Fort Worth on Friday as an argument for more lenient treatment of Carruthers.
In his first public comments on the case, Evans said all the charges would be vigorously denied and he was "optimistic" over the outcome. "In our global society, this case raises big issues - not only about gaming, but other issues as well. So, as a lawyer, it's a very interesting and big case, and it's obviously hugely significant to Mr Carruthers personally." Each of the wire offences in the indictment carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail.
He added that Carruthers was getting standard treatment on remand, which means he will be required to wear a prison-issue jumpsuit. "He's not being mistreated, neither is he being given any special consideration."
Meanwhile, a temporary restraining order placed on BetonSports by a court in Missouri has prompted it to shut down its website, although it has not complied with other injunctive requirements, which include placing an advert in US newspapers stating that it does not accept American customers. The US government also insists BetonSports establish a toll-free phone number for customers to call and retrieve money lodged with BetonSports.
Share trades in BetonSports on the London exchange were suspended earlier in the week at the companys request. The Telegraph carried a story estimating financial damage to BetonSports at GBP 4 million every day that the site is offline for U.S. gamblers. The story quotes a company spokesman as saying that in obedience to the temporary federal court injuction, the company had been advised by legal experts to comply and was trying to do so.
Other reports quoted BetonSports spokesmen as saying that the company was appealing against the restraining order, which has closed down BoS websites to US users, who generate 90 percent of the company's $1.77billon (GBP 970 million) annual turnover.
The Telegraph added to other independent reports that several senior online gambling executives had been in the United States without hassles very recently, and quoted analyst opinions that this may indicate that the crisis was company-specific and not an all-out attack on the industry.
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