|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Defence lawyer requests postponement of bail hearing, and case is going to Missouri
Reporters from major UK newspapers were present last Friday when the detained English online gambling company executive, David Carruthers appeared in a brief 5 minute bail hearing in a Texas court. He is to remain in jail and be transferred to a court in St. Louis, Missouri.
The British citizen and chief executive of BetOnSports PLC, a major, publicly listed online sports-betting operation, faces federal racketeering and conspiracy charges along with eleven other individuals named in a 22 count federal indictment unsealed earlier this week. The U.S. government says BetOnSports fraudulently took bets from US residents by phone and the Internet, and failed to pay excise taxes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The executive was arrested in transit on Sunday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as he waited to board a flight to Costa Rica, where the company has a major operation.
Carruthers' high profile Texas lawyer, Tim Evans asked the court to postpone the bail hearing, which will be held instead in a federal district court in St Louis. No date was set. Evans declined to say precisely why he preferred to move the detention hearing to St. Louis.
"We are very optimistic that the court in St. Louis can fashion some reasonable conditions for his release," said Evans. The lawyer said Carruthers was in good health and "doing very well under the circumstances, similar to how you would be doing if you had an orange suit on."
After the hearing, he was expected to be returned to a federal facility in Fort Worth to await travel to St. Louis.
Carruthers did not speak. He was shackled at the ankles - handcuffs were removed shortly before the judge arrived - and he was dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit and matching canvas slip-on shoes instead of the jeans and T-shirt that he wore at a court appearance Monday.
Experts who follow the industry say the real target of the indictment appeared to be Gary Stephen Kaplan, the BetOnSports founder. He is a former New York-area bookie now living in Costa Rica and remained at large despite the indictment.
|
|
|
|
| Back to News Menu... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
