Former BetOnSports CEO gets 33 months in US prison

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WASHINGTON — A British national who headed online sports wagering company BetOnSports PLC was sentenced Friday to 33 months in prison, in the final case related to the Internet gambling operation, officials said.

David Carruthers, 52, former director and chief executive of the London-listed BetOnSports, was sentenced in a federal court in Missouri, the US Justice Department announced.
Carruthers was arrested in Texas in July 2006, and pleaded guilty to racketeering charges linked to the company's operations in the United States, where Internet gambling is illegal. He had agreed to cooperate with US authorities.

"The prosecution and conviction of Carruthers is significant to the government's efforts at enforcement of US laws against offshore Internet and telephone sports wagering businesses, because Carruthers was both a foreign national and a top executive of BetOnSports," said Assistant US Attorney Steven Holtshouser.

"Previously, executives, owners and investors believed that they were immune from the reach of US law enforcement; even their business plans were directly aimed at the US market. Both the conviction of, and sentence handed down against Mr. Carruthers should send a message to any foreign business conducting illegal activities in the United States, that geography does not render it untouchable."
The sentencing "concludes a lengthy investigative and prosecution effort by several law enforcement agencies," the Justice Department said.

Last year, Gary Kaplan, the founder of BetOnSports, was sentenced to more than four years in prison after agreeing to forfeit more than 43 million dollars.
Most publicly traded British gaming firms have quit the US market following passage of a US law that bars banks and credit card firms from processing payments linked to online gambling.

The United States has stepped up a crackdown on Internet gambling, claiming that even sites operating from offshore violate US laws by taking wagers from Americans.
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