BetonSports Founder Legal Team May Offer US Solid FightThe founder of BetonSports, Gary Kaplan, is not about to back down from the US government in his fight to have charges leveled against him dropped. Those charges include racketeering and money laundering with the potential for life in prison.
Online gambling kingpin, Kaplan, was apprehended at a hotel in the Dominican Republic back in March as a joint effort of Dominican and US Authorities. Kaplan and approximately a dozen other individuals were indicted in July 2006 in connection with operating one of the online gambling industry's largest sports betting operations. BetonSports itself was named as a defendant. The once publicly traded company has since shut down.
Gambling911.com first reported yesterday that Kaplan had asked a Federal Judge to throw out his case.
Bookmaker Review has since elaborated further.
According to Kaplan's lawyers, the government's reading of the Wire Act is overly broad while the court is obliged to select a more narrower reading. The indictment also failed to prove a RICO violation as the government failed to adequately allege RICO's two most essential elements: the continuity and structure necessary for a RICO enterprise and the pattern of racketeering activity.
Kaplan has assembled one of the finest legal teams including Ben Brafman (on stand by), the same lawyer who represented P Diddy and Jay Cohen (another online gambling entrepreneur).
Stories of Kaplan's sickened condition while in captivity were reported on the Gambling911.com website back in June.
"He is currently being denied medication and a diet suitable for the conditions she mentions and he's in a 30 person facility with no special units," a source close to Kaplan's case told Gambling911.com.
Kaplan suffers from severe back pain as a result of a past work out injury.
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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com
Originally published August 16, 2007 11:00 pm ET
